Getting harder and harder to badge.

Well put, B_L. This is about exactly how I feel about it.

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Totally agree and the best, or worst, part of the whole Incarnate master of runs is I have seen trials fail because everyone was concentrating so hard on accomplishing some rediculous task and forgot to actually focus on finishing the trial! Badges are nice but they dont get me any emps, astrals or threads I need to build the powers I want.. which is one of the main purposes of the trials to begin with. On Virtue a certain segment of the player base has taken to ignoring them, badges, and focuses on winning the trial... the general response to the question .. will we be going after any badges .. isnt just no its Hell no!

Better yet, what people originally suggested:

• Lambda Looter: Complete the Lambda Sector Trial having acquired 10 Pacification Grenades and 10 Molecular Acids but using no Grenades or Acids in the final battle. *Note: this doesn't carry the EXTRA clause of "you can't collect any outside" which is totally stupid.
• Antacid: Complete the Lambda Sector Trial having acquired 10 Molecular Acids in 5 minutes.
• Well Stocked: Complete the Lambda Sector Trial having acquired 10 Pacification Grenades in 5 minutes.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

The trial badges already work this way. Currently, any badge requirements fulfilled by the league results in an extra astral merit for each one. Also, there is a random uncommon salvage drop for the first 3 badges earned and a random rare drop for the master badge. The problem is, its not enough of an incentive.

As an example: Why would a team spend an extra half hour working on bombs in the Underground trial for an extra astral merit when they could run a BAF trial in that same time and earn 5 of them?

My bad then. I didn't know that.
In my defense, I was just trying to offer up an idea to improve things.

Personally, I don't play incarnate content as I loathe iTrials, specifically league play. I am waiting while my year sub runs down to see if/when there will be non-league means for incarnate advancement either solo or single team like task forces, etc.

I was an avid badger, but, well, since I'd rather not bash the Devs or anyone for that matter, let's just say that I badged for fun, and for me, it's no longer fun.

Interesting, I didn't realize that either. Although, that explains why my incarnate salvage was mysteriously increasing in the last week. In this past week, I've banged out MoKeyes, MoTPN, and three badges towards MoMoM.

As others have pointed out, that exists, and it is for each badge the league earns.

BAF
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Not On My Watch
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Alarm Raiser
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Gotta Keep 'Em Separated
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Strong & Pretty
1 Random Rare for first time: Master of the B.A.F.

Lambda
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Synchronized
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Lambda Looter
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Antacid
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Well-Stocked
1 Random Rare for first time: Master of Lambda Sector

Keyes
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Anti-Anti-Matter
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Bunker Buster
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Loves a Challenge
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Avoids the Green Stuff
1 Random Rare for first time: Master of Keyes Island Reactor

Underground
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Regenerate This
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Tour Guide
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Preservation Specialist
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Avatar Assassin
1 Random Rare for first time: Master of the Underground

TPN
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: News Flash
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Fair & Balanced
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Television Addict
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Tonight's Top Story
1 Random Rare for first time: Master of TPN Campus

MoM
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Dreamwalker/Dreamkiller
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: A Perfect Storm
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Daylight Saver
1 Random Uncommon for first time, 1 Astral Merit each successive time: Lost Connection to Server
1 Random Rare for first time: Master of Minds of Mayhem

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

There is, and it's already been announced. Dark Astoria is being turned into a co-op zone that will offer street sweeping as well as door missions that can be done solo or in small groups, as well as a new iTrial. Scheduled for I22 if I recall my Pummit info correctly.

While I do agree with Arcanaville in general, I am a bit conflicted. I'm in the unusual position that I actively want to avoid getting the "Master of" badges on my characters; unfortunately, there's no way to turn down or delete the badges. When the requirements are simple enough (Apex comes to mind), it becomes very difficult to make any run a non-Master one.

While I certainly sympathize with the badgers, I'd prefer it if the Master badges required at least one dedicated run to unlock. It certainly doesn't need to be a degenerate activity, just something that a league would have to go out of its way to do. The BAF setup seems like a good model to me: Keep 'Em Separated requires a clearly sub-optimal strategy, but it's not a deliberately self-destructive strategy. Meanwhile, the other badges can be picked up over the course of a few normal (or very-slightly-different) runs.

That's the model I'd prefer the devs used going forward.

-D

I have to agree here. My breaking point was Ouroboros and the 110+ flashback badges that required me to go back and replay missions and arcs (that I had already beaten) multiple times, usually with some handicap in the form of debuffs. Those of you who know me know that my patience isn't the best. I don't farm simply because I don't the patience to do the same thing over and over and over. So when faced with the prospect of having to repeatedly grind those arcs I've already played through over and over again, I just didn't have the time or tolerance to do it.

I also have a main like Catwhoorg, who tries hard to be heroic and has never crossed the line toward brutality or vigilantism. As such, she won't be going Vigilante and thus many badges are out of her reach. I'm okay with that. I don't regularly check where I fall on the badge count anymore, although it is nice to get new ones when they become available.

That brings me to my final point, the one this thread is focused on. Previously, the Master of badges were simple: don't die and don't use any temp powers. A team could attempt any of the badges and obtain it with a SINGLE excellent run, not going too far out of the way in terms of the TF/SF's entire objective. But for some time now, the new Mo badges take that rationale and stomp it into the ground. We've gone from logical goals for badges to wholly illogical actions that can penalize your teammates (Underground), require multiple runs (Lambda), demand split-second timing across the zone (Keyes), or require some other increasingly arbitrary criteria that only loosely fits the objective of the trial (TPN, or take your pick). The new Master of badges have become gimmicky, and that only seems to be increasing. Each trial produces some new gimmick that's required for success, with multiple new, minor gimmicks required to earn the badges necessary for the Master of badge. There's no logical progression or parallel for badge requirements across the i-trials, and that makes the attempts for the new Mo badges feel more frustrating, which I think adds significantly to the relatively low demand among players to run these.

What I'd suggest for any Master of Badges:

1--All the badges required for a trial's/tf's/sf's Mo badge are obtainable in ONE RUN. It might require a perfect run, but the Master badge shouldn't require having to successfully repeat the trial four or five times. Sorry Lambda, but beating Marauder using no grenades AND no acids should give you all the appropriate badges at once.

2--Getting a badge required for a master badge shouldn't require you to hurt or sacrifice a teammate, with a possible exception if the teammate in question obtains the badge too.

3--Make sure the ultimate reason for failing to obtain a required badge is because the players did something wrong, or failed to do something right. Having a badge at the mercy of an NPC or mob, as I would argue happens to be the case with The Midnight Dodger What Dodges at Midnight badge. The Malta boss can knock players out of the tiny safe zone even with maximal team effort, and that shouldn't be how a team fails a badge run.

The ironic thing is that Avoids the Green Stuff would be a badge I would personally find a fun badge if it showed up in a soloable mission. My only complaint with it is that you have to inflict its acquisition on an entire league. For that matter, I'd do Preservation Specialist in a solo mission with no complaint.

I waited *years* to get the RV AVs on both sides, and I farmed the original Empath badge for nine months, and I did all ten thousand monkeys for the original Zookeeper in one four hour stretch on a bet. I'm not exactly a whiner when it comes to badges.

Maybe a better way to do the badge would be to complete 10 Keyes trials without your character specifically getting hit by the beam? That way you could make progress towards the badge even if someone else in the trial goofs up?

Apparently a glutton for punishment, though.

Exactly. I wouldn't mind doing those if it were dependent upon me, not on others. I've lost count of how many times I've avoided the green stuff, have not been killed, didn't make a bomb explode in a run just to have a poor team mate get caught at the last moment, die because he was held/lagged/not paying attention, run ahead and make a bomb explode, and so on and so forth.

As for the old requeriments, yes, been there done that. In fact, Blue Rabbit dinged 50 spanking monkeys in PI. Why? Because I love spanking monkeys.

Avoids the Green Stuff is arguably the most difficult badge to get in the game. As a dedicated badger, it certainly was the badge that gave me the most difficulty. A group of us, over a period of four months, tried every Sunday for the Keyes badges, Green Stuff in particular. We started late September. Finally got Green Stuff the Sunday before Christmas. I'd estimate we did about 40 runs of Keyes (having done 2-3 Keyes per week).

We were a team of people whose goal was dedicated to acquiring this badge, and it still took us ~40 attempts. There's almost no chance to get the badge on a regular Keyes runs. When I do Keyes now, I just laugh when I see Green Stuff fail, inevitably, usually on the first beam.

If it's any help, four people with Incandescence can make the Green Stuff a breeze. Assuming everyone's on the same page and has their teleport prompts turned off you can cycle through the teleports while your designated taunter pulls AM out of the Obliteration area of effect. It took about 4 tries to get that badge when we had just two of us with the league teleport.

A creative approach, one that our team leader pondered briefly as I recall, but we didn't give it a go, for whatever reason.

No argument here, and they haven't bothered to fix the design flaws with it--mainly that the satelite can still fire Obliteration Beam when time is frozen. Just fixing that one issue would greatly increase the likelihood of a skilled team earning it.

But at least they fixed the issue with pets who get trapped in the beam counting against you for badging... like a month after it came out.

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!