So, what are your initial impressions of I22?

Lets see I haven't done everything yet but

DIB .. I enjoyed the trial and the temps buffs are a nice bonus basically extending the Damage, Accuracy, etc that you got on the DFB to level 30. Hope they fix the bug on the dual AV fight at the end. One team i was on managed to defeat both Shivan within 2-3 seconds of one another and no badge.

DD Trial ... Honestly will all of the hype I was expecting a far more challenging trial. I will admit I don't think I'd take a 50 +0 anywhere near it with minions that are 54 + 3 but my characters with all three level shifts have had no problem with it so far. I was hoping for another trial like the TPN or UG with a guarenteed bonus (60 thread or a minimum rare/very rare). The first one I did I got a common and a total of 4 threads so that killed that hope.. maybe NEXT trial.

Dark/Dark .. I didnt get a chance to play with this too much on Beta and started out a bit disappointed that we don't have Beast Mastery or Staff weapons yet but my Controller is at level 23 now and I am enjoying the sets.

Dark Astoria .. LOVE the new zone and the new missions arcs. The art department did a fantastic job on many of the mission maps and I even enjoy the non combat (SOLO) missions where you get to BE your contact and get a little more of a glipse into their lives than the short bio you see when you click on them. The zone is quickly becoming the TRIAL zone on Virtue .. mainly because between trials, while the leader is recruiting and team mates may be AFK you can street hunt and get more threads!

Low level arcs.. I wont comment too much since I haven't done them on live yet but I did a few on Beta and the new arcs in Steel and Cap are good and offer another way to gain XP besides the same tired old contacts or running nothing but radio/newspapers until you outlevel the zone LOL

Now.. fix the bugs and release BEAST MASTERY next week and I will eb a happy camper.


Oh I forgot one.. I did a number of DIBs and while the COT mages I defeated counted toward that defeat badge I helped take out a number of Freakshow tanks and not a single one is reflected in the badge status area. Same problem existed with the Lost Bosses and Helions Bosses we defeated in the DFB when it first came out so i am hoping that gets fixed.

Have played into the story arc a fair bit more. I really really like all the arcs so far, they're varied, they tie together with so many different ongoing threads (Reichsman, Cimerora, The Praetorian invasion) It's a real pleasure seeing the story advancing at such a steady clip and with so many different pots stirring together. This is something you can't really do in a trial since they're so singularly focused, whereas here with the arcs you can add nuance and detail and some decent exposition.

I do have a couple nitpicks though. First and foremost, it's really lazy to keep saying 'a supergroup'. A supergroup went into Dark Astoria, no one knows what happened to the supergroup, oh the supergroup was all killed. Who was the supergroup? They had a name. Just saying 'supergroup' is the equivalent of saying "placeholder name" because no one would repeatedly say that. They'd be something like "The Lost Falcons" or "The Shining Stars" etc. obviously you don't really want to kill off any established characters with it, but I really just wanted to hear a name, or even SEE someone from the supergroup getting offed. instead it's just causally referred to then just as casually dropped, serving no real purpose except "mot and his forces were able to drop a whole supergroup".

Second, I'm pretty tired of the 'Of Vengeance' groups now. They're a pretty one trick pony that don't really run on any kind of worthwhile logic. I mean for Dark Astoria it's fine, but I'd like this to be about one of the last times we see anything 'of Vengeance'. Talons, Knives, Carnival, etc. It's the same trick played in both First Ward and Dark Astoria. They're not that interesting, they're not that unique, they don't really make enough sense. They just feel like a filler bad guy that can fit into places that it wouldn't make sense to use some of the other groups. And they have absolutely no depth whatsoever, they're pretty much just a big evil force 'just because'. And we 'decimated' them how many times over DA's arc? I think about 3 altogether, which was just 2 too many for a group that has no actual characters. They don't have personality, they're simply cardboard cut outs.

Lesse, other I22 stuff. I played around with my 35 plant/Fire dominator. The changes to the giant fly trap are -extremely- noticeable. He's still a bit flimsy, but nothing near what he was. Just wandering from spawn to spawn I'd usually see him take a few hits and hang around half health most of the mission unless there was a prolonged break, like a glowy hunt or something. Running around doing RWZ arcs he seemed to hang around a lot longer, had to resummon him once the whole play session, rather than mission to mission as I was doing before. The regen is -extremely- noticeable now, you can see his health just jumping up and he's topped up pretty quick.

Oh and the DA repeatables, I just have to say again what a joke 2 threads is for a 20 hour cooldown reward. I think I've taken it just once, the rest of the time I've been nabbing the reward merits and super inspirations, which have no cool down. Really can't wait for them to up this to something half worthwhile.

My main character, as it happens, is a Midnighter who is old enough to have known the Dream Doctor personally, and whose main driving forces include the fear of death and a guilty conscience.

I am ECSTATIC.

Rocks of Vengeance. Totally wicked.

Love the changes to my stalker, its broad sword, only thing, the attacks seem a little slower. I don't seem to be getting the critical hits I should be. The new mechanic on Assassin Strike work, but some times need 5 or 6 hits to activate. Head Splitter should be getting more.

Still there are a number of things they apparently have no intention of ever addressing. I still cannot send offline SG invites to my own characters. Rooting caused by Heal Aura on my emp, considering there has been patches in the past to fix this issue, its disappointing since they broke it in issue 17.

Agree about DD, its not very exciting.

On the upside this is the first time they have made changes to the UI, that did not suck.

Did I22 change Numina to BABs in the Long Bow Helicopter part of the tutorial?

The optimist would say good news for BABs as they probably won't off him in SSA#2 (or WWD#7), the realist would say it's a set up to the sucker punch death of BABs in WWD#7 or SSA#2.

Wade most likely already re-killed Numina in #2, she just doesn't know it yet.

So far it has been:

1. Play Stalker
2. Sporadic giggles
3. Remake 5 of my characters into Stalkers and recreate 3 more
4. Getting really tired of sewers.
5. AM I LEVEL 6 YET!? NNRRRGH

Oh right, I forgot all about mechanical changes... I don't have any stalkers, but that guilt-stricken Midnighter character I mentioned in my last post happens to be a Gravity controller, so at least he gets that silver lining (and such a shiny one)! Dimension Shift is still useless, but Wormhole and Propel are now, IMO, what they always should have been. Running DA arcs at +4 (which is +1 because the character is +3) is made possible to me by the Wormhole changes... it may be tricky to use, but learning curve aside, I would not hesitate to say that Gravity finally has a decent AOE control.

I've always enjoyed Gravity. The difference is that now I feel like much less of a masochist for it.