incarnate shards stopped dropping

[kendo339]

do incarnate shards stop dropping after you reach a certain incarnate level?  was the drop rate changed?  if not, I must be having some unbelievably bad luck.  through my first 12 - 13 incarnate levels, I found 21 shards.  since then, almost level 18 now, I have found 0.  I know they are fairly rare drops but 0 in 5+ incarnate levels?  running at +3 - +4, so all mobs are at least yellow, if not higher.  running a variety of story arcs, repeatable missions and some street farming, especially during the recent event.  threads are dropping like rain, almost 1400 in salvage tab and even merits are doing pretty well, almost 150 with more coming shortly at level 18. 

 

trying to hold off until I get 3 more shards to craft a second tier 1 alpha but figured that would have been at least 2 or 3 levels ago.  am I waiting in vain for more shards to drop or just really poor RNG?

 

thanks

 

 

[Queen Nefertiti]

You really don't need shards you know. All the alpha slot stuff can be crafted using thread and emp merits. By level 18 you should be tier 4 on alpha and probably well on your way to tier 4 in everything else too. tier 1 is 60 threads, tier 2 is 100 threads, tier 3 is 40 threads and 8 emp merits, tier 4 is 2 tier three plus 40 threads and 30 emp merits. Everybody looks at the top recipes which require notice of the well etc and never scroll down to the bottom where the much easier recipes are. Threads drop like rain, shards drop hardly ever.

[kendo339]

thank you for the reply, I am aware of being able to craft everything with threads and merits.  already found enough salvage that I won't even need to use threads to get to tier 4 alpha and a good start to other powers.  just figured I was so close with 9 shards that I could save a few threads and it wouldn't take long to get the other 3.  then they just completely stopped dropping which made me wonder if something changed either in the overall drop rate or your chances diminish after reaching a certain level, like no longer getting threads when you level after level 12.  will most likely just go ahead and get tier 4 alpha and when I ever get more shards, maybe start a second alpha path to try different options. 

first time ever crafting incarnate powers so plan to experiment on this first one to have a better idea how some of them work to know what I want on future level 50 characters

[Twisted Toon]

I haven't used any of my Emp Merits and I have tier 4 Alpha, Tier 3 Judgment and Lore, and tier 1 Interface.

Had just got lucky with the Random Incarnate salvage while running the Heather Townsend arc (many times).

[Call Me Awesome]

I'd prefer shards to go away altogether in favor of threads.  They're only good for the Alpha slot, which you can also use threads to craft, so once you T4 your Alpha any shards are totally worthless.  Yeah, once a day for 10 million inf you can convert 10 shards into 10 threads.  Even for your Alpha slot it's MUCH easier to craft using the alternate Threads salvage.

 

Why should we have a separate salvage tree that's only good for the first Incarnate slot and require completely different methods to make the other 5 slots?  Remove Shards from the game, change the drops to Threads and we're all good.

[Chance Jackson]

1 hour ago, Call Me Awesome said:

I'd prefer shards to go away altogether in favor of threads.  They're only good for the Alpha slot, which you can also use threads to craft, so once you T4 your Alpha any shards are totally worthless.  Yeah, once a day for 10 million inf you can convert 10 shards into 10 threads.  Even for your Alpha slot it's MUCH easier to craft using the alternate Threads salvage.

 

Why should we have a separate salvage tree that's only good for the first Incarnate slot and require completely different methods to make the other 5 slots?  Remove Shards from the game, change the drops to Threads and we're all good.

If it ain't broke don't fix it 

[The_Cheeseman]

Except new players get constantly confused by the remnants of the shard system, which just makes the entire incarnate system itself that much more intimidating and complex.

 

Get rid of shards. Replace all shard drops with threads and all the shard-based incarnate salvage Rewards with astral/empyrean merits.

[momentarygrace]

Do you have Vanguard merits? Craft a Gr'ai Matter every day for three days. You can convert Gr'ai Matter to 1 shard each.

[Mr. Vee]

Shards don't drop in incarnate specific content so if a lot of your activity is DA or trials you're adding to the already rare drop chance. Of course that's more than made up for with threads etc.

[Clave Dark 5]

12 hours ago, The_Cheeseman said:

Except new players get constantly confused by the remnants of the shard system, which just makes the entire incarnate system itself that much more intimidating and complex.

 

Get rid of shards. Replace all shard drops with threads and all the shard-based incarnate salvage Rewards with astral/empyrean merits.

Seconded, hard seconded.

[Shred Monkey]

11 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Seconded, hard seconded.

The incarnate system is a little confusing to a beginner anyway...  the whole existence of shards just look like a mistake someone hasn't bothered to fix and eliminating them would clean up a large part of the confusion. 

 

In fact, I came into this thread hoping to learn that they really had stopped dropping. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by Shred Monkey

[Rathulfr]

IIRC, the reason for shards versus threads was to allow free players to access/equip only the Alpha slot with shards, while "Freemium" (long-time paid Veterans) and VIP (subscribed) players had access to all the other slots and the threads needed to craft/equip them.

 

Now that there's no longer any distinction, I agree that it's time to deep-six shards a.s.a.p.

 

[The_Cheeseman]

3 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

IIRC, the reason for shards versus threads was to allow free players to access/equip only the Alpha slot with shards, while "Freemium" (long-time paid Veterans) and VIP (subscribed) players had access to all the other slots and the threads needed to craft/equip them.

 

Now that there's no longer any distinction, I agree that it's time to deep-six shards a.s.a.p.

 

Nah, it's just that they came out with the Alpha slot way early for marketing reasons, and everybody hated the system so much they redesigned the whole thing for when the rest of the incarnate slots got implemented. It was just easier to accrete the new system on top of the old one than to replace it.

[Call Me Awesome]

6 hours ago, The_Cheeseman said:

Nah, it's just that they came out with the Alpha slot way early for marketing reasons, and everybody hated the system so much they redesigned the whole thing for when the rest of the incarnate slots got implemented. It was just easier to accrete the new system on top of the old one than to replace it.

At this point the old system serves no purpose since the same result can be accomplished with the new system so it should be removed.  Hold a brief ceremony, then shoot it in the head and throw it overboard.

[TyrantMikey]

I must admit, I'd love to see a scenario where all Incarnate slots could be crafted with threads. It would vastly simplify everything. 

 

Even now, I find myself wondering if I need shards to craft T2-T4 components. Replace shards with a commensurate number of threads and that whole issue goes away.

[Broken_Prey]

34 minutes ago, TyrantMikey said:

I must admit, I'd love to see a scenario where all Incarnate slots could be crafted with threads. It would vastly simplify everything. 

 

Even now, I find myself wondering if I need shards to craft T2-T4 components. Replace shards with a commensurate number of threads and that whole issue goes away.

Can't they already?  The alpha slot can do both shards and threads just need to stroll down on the side, shards is always on top. 

 

[TyrantMikey]

1 minute ago, Broken_Prey said:

Can't they already?  The alpha slot can do both shards and threads just need to stroll down on the side, shards is always on top. 

 

I'm not sure. But maybe that's the point: The fact that the components you craft with shards are at the top of the list only encourages confusion. I wouldn't know that thread-only options were at the bottom of the list unless someone pointed it out to me. And the ingredients are hidden away behind tooltips.

 

It's all very obfuscated, and not newbie friendly.

[Broken_Prey]

5 minutes ago, TyrantMikey said:

I'm not sure. But maybe that's the point: The fact that the components you craft with shards are at the top of the list only encourages confusion. I wouldn't know that thread-only options were at the bottom of the list unless someone pointed it out to me. And the ingredients are hidden away behind tooltips.

 

It's all very obfuscated, and not newbie friendly.

I agree. The whole shards and threads is very confusing and even more for new players. I had to walk my friend through the system to show them how it works, and they still feel overwhelmed. The incarnate interfaces could use a rework and be more user friendly. 

 

The first step is to get rid of shards, if that is even possible. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Broken_Prey

[MunkiLord]

2 hours ago, TyrantMikey said:

I'm not sure. But maybe that's the point: The fact that the components you craft with shards are at the top of the list only encourages confusion. I wouldn't know that thread-only options were at the bottom of the list unless someone pointed it out to me. And the ingredients are hidden away behind tooltips.

 

It's all very obfuscated, and not newbie friendly.

Alpha can be done with either shards or threads. And I agree it's confusing and not user friendly, especially for new people.

[Abraxus]

Lots of useful info here:

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/1603-early-incarnates-mini-guide/