Elite Bosses and Arch-Villains in Dark Astoria

This does sound like it could be a bug, or an oversight.

... and still, some of us solo AVs, so, that'd be nice. As a thing. To have. Not trying to make a huge hissy fit or get up in arms, just, "hey, you know, stuff's great, good story arcs, but, if we could have an optional bump, an OPTIONAL bump, that'd be nice."

The burden of proof isn't needed for personal statement of desire. That is self evident.


There are a few simple facts that can be stated:

#1: There are people who like to team in Dark Astoria, and this does not prevent someone from running the arcs solo.
#2: There are people who want to fight AVs in Dark Astoria, and this does not prevent someone from running the arcs solo.
#3: There are people who want to team and fight AVs in Dark Astoria, and this does not prevent someone from running the arcs solo.


Since this game is ultimately for profit, it is in the game designers best interest to allow people to feel fulfilled with the new content in the game, so they will keep playing the game or try to get others to play the game. This includes attempting to accommodate all types of playstyles and players, with the exclusion of one:

Players that demand other people play the way they do.

These individuals are bad for business, and are destructive to the gaming community. Players who want more choices and to allow more gaming are constructive to the gaming community and are good for business because they attempt to improve upon the game with their feedback. By making the game more enjoyable by having a community that allows everyone to play, it lets players enjoy the game more, and thus is more profitable for everyone.

So it is a good idea to give the players what they want, instead of needlessly excluding them at the expense of no one.

Far as I can tell, by including AVs as optional (key word: optional, as in not appearing unless we want them to), this strips the solobility of it. Somehow. Maybe it retroactively makes his XP less than my XP. I don't know.

I'm really befuddled as to why anyone would have a problem with optional AVs.

By the way, since the entire reason we're seeking incarnate powers (well - the heroes anyway, villains have their own reasons) is to fight absurdly powerful foes that we would have no hope of defeating any other way, it's a bit odd for the incarnate-focused zone to not have even the option for such absurdly powerful foes. Forget teams for a second - I want AVs so I can solo them, demonstrating how powerful I am.

The thing is, the argument that DA is solo content therefore there shouldn't be AVs, ignores the fact that some players include AVs in their enjoyment of Solo play.

I'm a player that like AVs in solo content, and was not all that happy with the fact that both DA and the SSA has EBs that don't scale to AVs when it say's "This content has EBs which may be challenging for solo players" or something to that effect. That's an admission that the fight is intended to be difficult for standard play, and some players might require a team. If I'm on a powerful character, and want a similar challenge, that's what the AV setting "WHILE SOLO" is for.

I wanted to fight Penny as an AV, instead I got to see her pet, something about charging, and her Die. I hear she has cool looking powers though.

Really with this game, and the way people play it, saying AVs are outside solo content and their absence should be an enforced design decision, is simply stupid.

Since when do AVs mean better drops, though? AVs are generally terrible in terms of rewards for the time and effort it takes to defeat them.

Perhaps not, I figured the thread drop weight would be higher for them though. Not really that big an improvement but still, every little bit.

I kind of have to agree with Johnny on this one, for two reasons.

One, it could be actually be semi-disruptive to teaming. How many folks will sit for a half hour trying to get 6 folks for the DFB trial so it'll spawn the AV's when you can readily go with 4 then check again after the 20 minute or so run? This is different in that it's readily fixable by the difficulty settings, but not all players will do that. They want the 6-8 on teams for the easy steamroll, otherwise "LOL that's to hard, 4get it!" (yes, I've seen this argument). I'll admit, this is a very, very minor argument, and I suspect the real reason is my second point.

Two, we're told over and over throughout the arc that while there are powerful beings out there, nothing can truly match the power of an incarnate. This mechanic 'forces' us to understand that, and underscores just how powerful we really are at this point. There's an AV of Requiem, Romulus, Reichsman, etc. in game, which proves to me that this is not an oversight on the dev's part. The fact these once fearsome opponents have been diminished is part of the 'working as intended' in our ascension as incarnates.

Basically, they're not less powerful, you're just that much more powerful, and the EB thing is just a game mechanic to demonstrate that.

Ultimately, I don't care either way, but I don't think it's a bug or oversight, and working just as they intended it to be...

So that way we can't complain when they sic the really nasty pancakes on us in the next installment... As demonstrated in a couple misisons (a particular Cimeroran one comes to mind...). I'm thinking they're going to focus on 'strength in numbers' against us vs singular powerful opponents. This can make us 'feel' even more powerful than fighting a single thing that's more powerful than us.

Now Incarnates are the AV's, and the old AV's and NPC's are the players that have to swarm us to have a chance. That's power.

I imagine that perspective shift is what it means to be an incarnate.