Dilemma Diabolique 'intro' arc?

On the I22 patch notes, it says there's an 'intro' arc leading into the Dilemma Diabolique trial. Any idea what this might be? I don't think its the Dream Doctor's arcs...

It was a special arc that culminated in the trial, detailing the capture of the Phalanx and others. Because the trial was high level (50 +3) and DA is looked to as an alternative to trials by some, those members of the forums took it as a slap in the face that the whole of Dark Astoria would culminate in a trial and it was removed - along with the associated badges for completing it. Others had an issue with the fact that the trial was such a high level, forcing low level incarnates who had played through Dark Astoria to wait until they had enough level shifts to complete the mission.

I never actually ran the arc - but when I asked about it, Zombie Man was kind enough to provide the highlights. Please note that these ARE spoilers about what will happen during the existing DA arcs:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zombie Man After DrDr's personal story mission, there was a mission where Ms. Liberty gets a message from Dominatrix that she's still trapped in Mot, which is odd, since you had just imprisoned Mot in his own self-absorption and freed everyone. So, despite knowing it's a trap, Ms. Liberty gets the whole Freedom Phalanx and Vindicators to march on Mot again. Then we find out that it's not Mot, it's Diamotique. Of course, they need you to go with them since you're the real Mot-tamer. Then, they all get ate and you run away again. Then the DrDr tells you that Diabolique's charm which held her essence (which is what Tyrant used to control her) now contains Mot. This means Diabolique can simple carry Mot out of his self-absorption prison. Then he gives you the mission to gather a league of supers to fight Diamotique. So, without that intervening mission, the DDiTrial makes no sense if you just finished the DA arcs, unless you read the trial info which tries to fill in the gap:

It's a shame that it was taken out; after running through DAs amazing content I really, really want more arcs, even if its just one mission to set up the trial. The writing is just that engrossing. It would be a nice proof of concept way to unite missions and trials, too, and provide characters a better way to feel involved in CoH's endgame.

Who knows? Maybe we'll see it revealed in a later mini-issue once people have had the chance to play through Dark Astoria. I sure hope so.

I dunno how I felt about it. On the one hand, it is nice to get an actual set up to these iTrial arcs so we can know what we're dealing with before jumping into the action. But on the other hand, DA was supposed to be the answer to the solo/small team issue Incarnate content had, and giving out a mission that pretty much says "Hey, you can't finish the story until you run this iTrial with 20 other people!" really didn't have much of a place in this zone.

Maybe if a separate contact gave out this mission, and the contact only unlocked once you completed DA's arc, and warned you ahead of time that it's iTrial content, it'd go over better. That way, soloists can completely ignore the side mish instead of having Dream Doctor give out the mish and amp you up to take on Diabolique for nothing. Meanwhile, leaguers and folks that enjoy both paths can have their storyline intact.

I only ask because the new information given by Prometheus after finishing Dilemma Diabolique seems to indicate a significant information gap between finishing all of the new Dark Astoria content and getting to the trial. I'm not certain whether the info on 'Diabolique is trying to become a Well' or what have you was meant to be inside that gap.

Nom Nom, part II.