50+10? Abandoned or still planned?

No, they're not. You can go on them all you want. You just suck real bad. Your rewards are exactly the same, though, which wouldn't be the case if you were -8.

Actual levels make it strictly impossible to attent, period.

Were that true, I find actually find it very unlikely that the Magisterium trial would be gated purely on having Lore and Destiny unlocked, instead of slotted. Unlocking them gives you a badge, which is something that gates access.

No, it did not meet your expectations, and apparently the OPs and GuyPerfect's. Are you representative of "a lot of" players? How do you know? Perhaps people I play with just don't talk about it, but I don't find your expectations to be something I hear mentioned by others in game, which leads me to question that assertion.

Here's my problem with most of the Level/Incarnate shifts - we aren't actually moving forward.

These shifted enemies give EXACTLY the same rewards as a regular 54, yet they get a few purple patch levels over us to extend the fight while we get an extra 2 levels that ONLY work while fighting enemies that have various buffs designed to make them more like Elite Bosses than bosses (Like ISF Commanders and their massive debuff resistance and damage resistance to everything, and the DUST mobs with massive +Accuracy to ensure splash damage).

Our Shifts make the first three trials fairly trivial (Though my non-melee toons cry foul that they can be soloed by a boss if they cant apply a Mag 4 mez instantly), but the later trials give marginally better rewards (the Magisterium in particular is a waste of time if you fail - you only get Astrals upon completion), for a much greater investment of time and energy (those incarnate shifts are all but MANDATORY for a player to contribute).

In the end it feels like we only got ONE shift - mostly because the Alpha shift is the only one that works outside of trials - even Apex and Tin Mage don't let you bring your shifts from Lore/Destiny. Most of the mobs give almost nothing drop wise, have marginally better rewards than fighting 52s, and what are we left with? Shifts that can only be used to get more shifts, and even then only two for more than a year.

I don't feel like I'm a level 50+3 Incarnate of great power. I feel like I'm a level 50 fighting level 54s because the mobs have been designed to act that way even with my 3 level shifts. In fact, the ONLY real thing I noticed when I got my two incarnate shifts was that there were oranges and yellows in the BAF and Lambda. The numbers didn't really change all that much - my Fire Blaster could fire his attack chain at a Boss for an eternity and it STILL WOULDN'T DROP. Even though I was 50+3 and it was 54. Why? Because it had 50% Resistance to everything.

If I don't FEEL like I'm getting stronger, I'm not. Perception > Reality for me.

Originally Posted by Shubbie Im very good at taking a problem and making it worse.

When people were looking at it, back in 2007, the Halloween GMs functioned exactly as I described. It got to the point that if a player could be SK'd up past the GM level that their damage would improve by doing so. Sadly, forum purges eliminated the threads in question.

Alpha Unlock is required for Apex & Tin Mage. If your Alpha slot is not filled, it gets filled for the duration of the trial with a power that reduces your effective level (nothing else) by 4 levels. This means you are fighting as a level 46 with all your normal and incarnate powers (if you have just unslotted Alpha).

Basically, the game checks the following for each character:

• Does the character have the Alpha slot unlocked?
  • If no, trial cannot start.
  • If yes, proceed.
• Does the character have the Alpha slot slotted?
  • If no, apply Emperor Cole's Incarnate Control.
  • If yes, do not apply debuff.

They could, if they wanted to.

A lot = more than a few, less than a majority. If you, or the people you regularly team with, don't fit in the statement then you don't have the same experiences that I have. I believe that we've agreed in the past that we don't team or play the game in the same way. I do know that some players during the Issue 18 beta were underwhelmed with the power levels of even the first two tiers of the Alpha slot as well.

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

You aren't barred from going on the trial without that slot filled. You're barred based on whether it's unlocked. Slotting doesn't provide access. Unlocking does.

And you missed my point. If there is something they can check for, it can be made into an access point. Additionally it gates content as many don't like to have a -4 level penalty so they don't join said content. It isn't a hard gate, but it is a gate.

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

Heresy! Not wanting more FREEEM! is just wrong, y'know?

Didn't say I didn't want it . Just saying it was a different beast than the Incarnate abilities we did get .

Emphasis mine. Good PR on the wording.

Now let's keep things that way.

EDIT: (Reads the rest of the thread) Darnet. Zombie Man! You beat me to the punch.

My problem is that I for one despise raising the level cap in games, especially with those that possess a scaling system, because it breaks the end-game effectiveness of existing gear and content by rendering their end-game benefits ineffectual. If I had things my way, every MoB in the game would run on GM-scaling code. This would work because the stats and powers available to the enemy which is scaled are not even among all level ranges - Paladin has exponentially weaker stats compared to a DE GM from Monster Island for example, and a scaled Hellion is a wimp compared to scaled Nemesis or Carnival of Shadows enemy groups.

But I digress. I personally see Level Shifts by themselves as an awesome idea to emulate exponential power gains without outdating content - but when applied only to PLAYERS. When you start applying them to enemies as well, you merely invite the concept of palette swaps - another no-no in efforts to maintain the illusion of progress. I also need not remind everyone of the rock-throwing civies in the TPN trial. Besides, NPCs have already had the benefits of level-shifting (up to level 54, as the standard is level 50), so adding more just neutralizes our own progress.

In addendum, more powerful or upgraded enemies also deserve upgraded graphical representations, or at least a power makeover like what we've seen in SSA 2.1. Several existing iTrials notoriously missed this and had us fighting upgraded Warworks with no discernible visual queues for their power enhancement (and please don't get me started on that "Cole powered them up" excuse; it's paper-thin at best).