This. This is more like it.

A buddy and I realized we were doing our Alpha mission at the same time on freshly leveled 50 characters. We decided to team up for the last couple missions and then went to Dark Astoria to start Heather's arc. We started duoing it, but broadcast in a global channel for more. In short order, we got a 3 more, one of whom wasn't quite 50 yet, but still quite able to contribute since we were at +0 still.

Five folks, saving the world from evil and earning exp and incarnate progress for it.

This is what it should have been like from the VERY beginning!

Very nice work on Dark Astoria. The Faultline revamp was pretty awesome, but the DA revamp is now the gem you have to outshine.

I do hope it continues. some people like raids, i have even found a place in liberty's raiding groups..if only as filler, but my ideal playing is with my friend and his wife, and perhaps one other irl friend so more small team incarnate stuff, perhaps involving the shard or merluna, that would be appreciated.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I concur.

I like the trials, but I don't want to spend ALL my time doing trials any more than I want to spend all my time doing TFs.

DA is pretty cool from what I've seen thus far.

I third this motion. Or whatever we're up to.

I really enjoy the incarnate missions in DA. I can take any of my friends with me or none of them. I can eat a sandwich while I play because no one's going to get upset if I randomly AFK when I solo. I can pause to be chatty. I can run at my own pace. I really enjoy the incarnate content in DA.

I had a good time running them on my IOed out +3 Scrapper. I finished everything last night, and there was something very satisfying about Saving the World by punching a God of Death in the face over and over.

I also enjoyed the 'Hey, we've got backup lined up for you, unless you think you don't need it.' And I was all 'Chill out guys, I got this.' And proceeded to Vorpal Kick my way through the Talon Army and the Hordes of Pantheon. Sure I was running at 0x2, but it was FUN. And that's the most important thing.

I agree.

The revamped DA is really well done and allows people to earn different rewards on the same team.

I do wish this type of system had been put in place from the very beginning - particularly for earning incarnate XP and salvage.

Some of the itrials are good (BAF, Underground) but some are simply horrendous and to be honest poorly designed, like TPN.

Agreed. I actually don't mind raids now and then, when it's with people who know what they're doing and so forth. They're fun, but they're like modern day Cookie Monster says: a sometimes food.

The Dark Astoria missions on the other hand are wonderful. I feel important in them, yet not scene hogging. I admit, the stories themselves work great with several of my characters. The young adventurer with the blood of a fallen hero in her veins (who happens to be buried in Moth Cemetary)? The nature-bound changeling? The supernatural investigator? So many work well here.

I loved that it made me feel like the hero, and gave me ways of getting through things that gave the illusion of not being railroaded. Like if I didn't bluster or threaten the Tsoo guy but instead acted empathetic and understood and respected his position, he'd let me pass without a fight. Or the villain intro arc, where you can basically tell Daos that he is going to help you and tell you what you want to know, and he's just got to deal with it. "I beat up Reichsman and your boss made me an honorary Arbiter" or "I beat up the Freedom Phalanx" or "I'm an Incarnate and I'll decorate the walls with you."

I really liked the ramp up in tension and action as the story continued, from investigating and hampering the Knives to direct action against the big bad's forces. Same time, made me feel powerful. "There's an entire army of Talons out there. We can help." "It's only one army, so you just need one me."

The enemies themselves can give you a challenge if you're not careful. My willpower scrapper had some trouble later on against Banished Pantheon. Their debuffs can really ruin your day. But it made it interesting. It's been a while since I was properly challenged. And the enemy designs are good. Even if I imagine going all God of War on the Ravagers.

Honestly, my only complaint has been the boss fights. The major EBs don't feel as sturdy or dangerous as I feel they should for how powerful they are supposed to be and look, and they don't scale to AVs. But this is a quibble, and I've discussed it elsewhere.

Really hoping this level of writing and storytelling keeps up in future content.

The iXP and thread drop rate I find to be not bad, especially while teaming. I was running my controller last night through some missions with a friend's blaster. My controller was all kitted out with all her Incarnate powers at Rare or Very Rare, while my friend didn't even have his common Alpha slotted yet (and I think he's using SOs). His connection and computer aren't really sturdy enough for trialing. Running two or three missions last night at +3/x4, he was able to get about 4 or 5% progress on his Judgement and Interface slots.

Yeah, it takes longer, especially if you don't team and can't solo as well, and I figure there will be some tweaking, but it's not bad.

Awesome!

Also, you can enter the new DA without being an incarnate? o.o

Add me to the "more incarnate stuff like this" crowd.

I can't say that trials are bad... just not my preferred playstyle.

More importantly, CoH is the only PC game my wife and I play together, so its the only reason to even bother trying to maintain two gaming-level PC's. The weaker PC just doesn't handle the effects well on large-group things like trials, raids, and invasions. Sure, we could upgrade, but neither of us like trials enough to bother with an upgrade JUST for them.

So, please, keep the non-trial content flowing. Non-incarnate non-trial content, too, for that matter.

More like this. Shadow Shards + Eden, maybe?

Fantastic stuff, DA has replaced the RWZ as my favourite story arc zone.

That's not to say we wouldn't like some more non-incarnate zone revamps. Boomtown, Perez, Crey's Folly and the Shard could all use some love. And the 30-40 and 40-50 ranges definitly could use some new content.

Ill concur. The New DA is probably the best revamp since faultline. Not to say AP isnt looking Shiny Shiny. Not that iTrials where the only way to Iup solo or casually. A wst here and there when it was a fun one, and shards converted to threads has been enough to let several of my casual for fun 50s enjoy the new system even if they are not all T4 in every slot yet.

However I will happily throw my two inf in on the quality of the story arcs and thier expansion of lore. Its allowed for a depth of character immersion on my most beloved blaster beyond most content since cov came out.

For Bentley Berkeley, one of the founding charter members of the midnighters, and an immortal wizard who has fought the path of the Dark since the days of Cimmorea, not to mention a long time arch nemesis to Requiem, this series of adventures has been amazing fun.

Getting the chance to let his hair down and run at +4x6( hey sue me the mobs are new types partly and I am just a blaster) is great fun solo and probably one of the purest tests of his potential in a long time since its brand new unexplored lvl 50+ content, with new mob types and occasional mini challenges to really test you on the spot like saving Berkeley's old students/friends Sigil and Kadabra ( saving them both solo first time through was immensley fun and satisfying) just locked me into the mindset of BB thoroughly.

Fighting Requiem and one of the variant marcus coles two to one was also a nice moment I will recall for some time. As was seeing Ice Mistral sacrifice herself for Scir. The IMTF is one of my favored red side TFs and BB leads them fairly frequently( yeah he is a Vij I love access to both sides) so she is probably my most favored red side icon.

All in all I definatly have to say at least for my magical characters this current content update is right on the money.

I also really lika DA

I enjoy a trial now and then but I do not want it to be the main thing I do.. I love to team, but I prefer to do so with a smaller group.

I hope they will continue to support that style of play.

I like iTrials and I like the new DA. The ability to actually do something all the time and still progress is golden.

I often log on at the 'wrong' time to do trials, so DA gives me something to do with my 50s.

GAH! I am looking forward to when I get my next 50 so I can experience all of this. I still haven't set foot in the place!

I actually think the content in the trials was very well done also. But I prefer the feel of playing on a smaller team myself as well.

I do really like Dark Astoria now. Though I was surprised to learn that Mot uses the same interior decorator as the Zerg.

Yeah and with the upcoming change (a way to get EMPS!!!) this zone is even more awesome.