Mortm

I know, I clicked on wrong tab on browser.

I'd explain, but unless I'm praising everything these new Devs do, all I'd get is a bunch of people telling me "If you don't like it, don't play".

Wow, the first reply to what I said is a "If you don't like it, don't play." Also, I have no issues with speed runs. The issue starts when changes are made to the game to make speed runs (or whatever challenge in the game) easier. You do speed runs when you and your team know how to get the job done. They're making changes that bypassing objectives for the game. Eliminating the need to click objectives at the same time, for example. It was inconvenient, not impossible. They might as well put in an auto complete for TFs and Trials. Look at infiltrate, its tailor made for stealthing. There is nothing wrong with stealthing, but you could do it before, it didn't need a special power. The power got made when someone doesn't want to take an extra power or choose an AT that could do it. Or take a look at making your powers for the alpha slot; you can use threads instead of shards. Why not just make 1 AT that can do everything, no weaknesses, all the travel powers, can solo everything. No risk, no challenge, no point. If you look deeper, one of the things that make heroes interesting is that they have weaknesses, they can't do everything. Overcoming that is what makes their stories interesting. That is what was meant to make the game play interesting. TFs and Trials were meant to require teamwork, and the variety of ATs and builds gave you the opportunity to find different ways to do it.

I think the original poster's point is that the challenge of the game has been lost. It is very easy to obtain the incarnate powers and the changes that are being made only eliminate more of the game's challenges. In previous issues more thought was put into balance, there were pros and cons to the choices you made when you were building your character. The biggest challenge people deal with now is tedium, which is why you see people who do speed runs and grind thru the content. The current devs are are making changes that are destroying the game's concept of having the player make choices affect the way the game is played for that character. For example, "Invisibility" has become a power that you use to stealth missions and you can get it without the requirement of obtaining any other power; It looks like someone wanted to stealth missions without having to make a trade off for it. The game has gone from "which powers will I choose" to "a list of powers you eventually unlock". Most of the changes they are doing are removing the cons that were put there to make it more challenging. An example of this is removing the end drain from from "nuking". And that is just one example of a change made not because something was broke, but because they didn't like the inconvenience. Fanboys took the reins and now the game is circling the drain.

Why couldn't you just make a different power for stealthing to the end of missions? It could be some sort of prestige power. Instead you screw up the whole balance behind the concealment pool. Just make all your alts invincible and be done with it.