Greycat

I was going more for "why does the current trainer need replacing," personally. Granted, that wasn't clear. Eh. I'm not against it (the devs have done this for ... I believe as-yet-unreleased content, asking for player submissions,) but I think I'd rather see it for new NPCs or groups.

Why?

Yeah, the whole "battalion" thing was just ... ugh. It was "we need to shoehorn this in," lore wise (Lady Grey was a traitor the whole time! ... never mind there's nothing pointing to it, it's just pulled out o fsomeone's posterior) to keep up the (again, shoehorned in) Incarnate system with *yet more* ("Stay subscribed and keep paying us, please! Love, NCSoft") trees on top of what we have now, with their own salvage and types of XP. And after that you get to deal with Prometheus's sort of people (with yet more trees on top of the incarnate and battalincarnate ones,) and then a level of them past that... Blech.

The body stealing thing (a) is fully appropriate for a Nictus, and (b) while it might be "auto hit," it also has a timer. Tell the team, have them kill the hostless nictus. There's plenty of time to kill it. It's not an instant effect. Shield wall? Why should a single IO nullify an AV? And the IO itself only gives a 20% chance vs teleportation, in any case, as it says in its own description. He finally gets to be a threat again... at *optional* difficulty levels.

... because he's an NPC character only mentioned in lore, perhaps?

Fifes? Pennywhistles? Most flutes (modernish) end up *around* two feet long just because of the range they play in and how they work, which is why modern flutes (and quite a few modern traditional ones) are designed to break apart. Or are you thinking of something like the (end-blown, but generally still called a flute) shakuhachi or nokan? (And as much as I want these in game, mostly as base items, something for NPCs to play and something that can be turned into a player emote, I can't picture these being carried on the back... as someone who's been a flutist since the 70s/early 80s, with a small break.)

"Needed?" I've run across nothing that made AE farming "needed." Desired, yes - I don't care for low level MM play, for instance, and hate wasting 24 levels on VEATs 'til you get the forced respec, so I often farm myself up past that, but those aren't "needed." Helps that a lot of the content I like running is mid-range, from early-mid 20s to around the 40s. And no, I wouldn't call speed TFs making AE farming "needed" either. I see a fair number of kill-all TFs advertised as well (and now hardmode TFs,) so speed runs are hardly the only thing being run. And hey, if you don't want a speed run, you can always start a TF to run the way you want....

I'm pretty sure they are, with that being a power that makes them untouchable. I posted something else months ago about something similar - the fir bolg patrols in croatoa occasionally stopping, tree-ing up to hide, then continuing on the patrol.

Honestly, if we could get them as costume parts (backpacks,) I'd also want to see them as base items - there are enough bars/homes/apartments and such that could use them. Then maybe NPCs playing them and emotes using them, later.

I'd have to second "as a new power set" for an idea like this. I'd also have to question just how fast one would die in something like an MSR or Hami raid. >.>

Given he mentions enjoying an SG with members earning stuff back in the bad old prestige days, I'd say more than likely he'd want *some* interaction. Even if just someone else to talk to in chat.

What makes you think SOs won't work in Incarnate content? It'll be a little harder than "I'm perma-this, capped-that," sure. Then again, I recall people on live with IO'd builds who couldn't complete Trapdoor or any of Ramiel's arc when that came out, and I walked right through on SOs. *shrug*

Good point. I remember that as well. People calling *those* the good old days... when there wasn't as much content, when you'd have teams standing around waiting for a tank to herd the whole floor so a blaster could nuke it. Unless you were the tank, that was ... boring, frankly. Yet some people consider that the "good" time. The rest of the team? Well, don't complain about door sitters in farms... because that's what we were doing right then while we waited. And those were the low-single-digit issues. And balance... I end up thinking of PVP with mention of balance. There's no way to balance one AT against the other - you can't even internally balance some of the ATs because the powerset differences were so vast. "Balance" was "Get a team to cover your weaker points," and you know... that worked. *shrug*

Yeah. head over to rebirth. You'll be lucky if you see one other person, though.

I'm not fermented, I'm demented.

My characters are characters. They're not done at 50 if I'm not done with them, and it has nothing to do with game content. *shrugs* Most of the time, I don't frankly care what level they're at.

Really? Funny, there was a whole SG of us doing that. Then again, if your definition of "play" is limited to "Must be at superubermax difficulty soloing Hamidon," no, it won't work. If it's "Completing content and going from 1-50?" Very doable, thanks. General comments: We hvae a mix of "it's too easy" and "quit adding hardmode top end content." As always. Yes, development went all over the place, during live, SCORE years and here. You (generic) not liking stuff does not make it a "mistake." No, not even sentinels. The live dev team shifted constantly and got to be a bit frustrating as they'd leave things behind so that "the new devs can work on what they want!" while leaving dangling ends (like all the clues and such for the blood of the black stream.) Incarnates? Face it, these were an "NCsoft carrot to keep paying subscriptions, balance be damned" addition. It's so off from the rest of the game, of *course* they don't fit. But we've had people complain about *everything.* IOs, incarnates, too much content at this level, too much content at a different level, not enough content at either level, or one side or the other. Everyone's idea of what the "ideal" state of the game is different - and almost nobody's going to agree on that, either. (Mine, for instance, moves us out of the cities to have a more worldwide impact, cuts the "rule of 5" down to a "rule of 3" for IO set bonuses, drops Incarnate powers other than alpha in half when not in Incarnate content, keeps anyone from being able to cap or perma anything on their own - you want permadom, you make friends with at least a kin - and so on. Won't ever happen unless I spin up my own server.) We've got an old game, an older playerbase, and a volunteer dev team that frankly moves faster than we have any right to expect them to. That said, I mostly use the game as a vehicle for my *own* stories and characters to interact with others. The game's simply a backdrop. If it disappeared tomorrow, I'd still be able to do.. 75% of it or so with discord and other writing.

Yep, having to force quit modder with that dialog (noticed the 503 error with the site, too.)

I don't know if it's doable just from the nature of the power. Even changing stances for walk, another sort of "inherent," is a little weird with how it's implemented. If it *can* be done, sure, I'm all for more options. I don't think I'd *use* it, but I wouldn't object to it being there for those that would.

I'd say.... part "yes and no," part "that's a little too simplistic." I mean, sure. First coming back, seeing the game, it wouldn't matter if there were no INF dropping, people are going to go "Hey, I didn't know this was back" and that'll sustain them for a while. And yes, when a game becomes work, I either ignore the reward's existence (example, Daevea armor from early in Aion - grind five characters up to 30, each only gets one piece of the armor set, trade or do whatever so that one character can have the full set - no, I ignored this,) or get out of the game (TOR, Aion - using Aion as an example again, and again early instead of the shoddy front end for a massive cash shop it is now, you had to keep upgrading your wings to be competitive - and i don't just mean in PVP, even though it was a PVP centric game, but to travel in PVE. And it got *expensive,* to where you were basically grinding for cash one way or another to get them. I stopped at that point. The "work" aspect outweighed the fun.) As for the rest? Depends on the activity. Basebuilding (other than those that get paid INF for it, and even then...) and RPing are completely their own reward, a "you get enjoyment from the action itself." RP and character and story creation are where I find most of my fun now. The game never offered or promised that *it* would reward you for it. Stuff the game *does* promise to reward you for or have you work towards... those have to be fair, or even if it's the best story arc or TF ever written - if the rewards aren't worth it, it's not getting run. If - say - every arc in the game were set to reward 1 reward marit, TFs 2, Incarnate trials and Hami 3, it would turn fun into work. To get anywhere, I'd just run Habashy's intro arc through ouro repeatedly - it feels fair now with 3 merits for a quick arc, and wouldn't have lost much, but it would still feel like work. Similiarly, having everything drop (say) 100 merits on you would pretty quickly gut any feeling of achievement when getting anything. So... there's some balance there, and some context for what's "rewarding" - itself or "material" rewards, and fairness in whether it's just a fun part or work.

You are incorrect. It has been that way since live. It's noticable if you tend to start looking for specific NPC names (such as looking for an M-name to see what it thinks you have for patrol time,) since you end up seeing a pretty thorough survey of names.

As I said. "So in short, the confuse is skippable." I pick up confuses for a reason. That reason is not to be hit with an alpha strike before even damage hits, much less the actual control. If I wanted that, I'd pick up Provoke. At least then I'd expect it.

So, in short, the confuse is skippable. And I'd say I certainly do mind the notification of the mobs when the target summons something or attacks me and his/her/its buddies come charging after me. The damage and its pile-on effects has, frankly, made this version of confuse much less useful as presented. Guess the slotting strategy for me is going to have to be "ranged attack that happens to do a confuse" instead of a useful control power. And yes, I saw Powerhouse's comments, and frankly think they're ... well. If we need "100 powers" acting the same way to establish how they work, I guess everything's up in the air but Brawl and Sprint.

This isn't a bug, I don't think. If you go outside and look at the NPCs walking around, you'll see plenty of NPCs named like that. Edit: See pic. That just took a few seconds, going from one side of the KR tram to the other.