Revising SSA rewards - well, one of them.

[Greycat]

So, I like running the SSAs, generally. Easy merits once a week.

When you finish one, you get a choice of four rewards. I just finished #1 on one of my characters, the 10-20 arc. What were the rewards?

1. 4x reward merits. Yay, 20 merits, at least if you haven't run it in 6 1/2 days roughly!

2. An Astral merit. But only if you're 50.

3. Threads. But only if you're 50.

4. One accuracy SO.

And "Choose nothing."

 

All right, so the rewards are all right. You're getting 5 merits regardless, and 20 if you haven't run it for about a week. This is probably the most popular option.

If you're running this while leveling - you're not 50 yet - options 2 and 3 might as well not exist.

That leaves... option 4.

 

One Accuracy SO. Not even "Pick an SO." You're getting accuracy, and you're going to like it. We used to DREAM of living in a corridor, it would have been a palace to us... And at the level of the first two SSAs, that SO doesn't last very much. The reward at level 10-20 (and beyond, really) - since you're getting 5 merits anyway - is almost a worse option than picking "Choose nothing." These were released late enough in the game's life that an SO wasn't really a great reward *then* (and again, you don't even get to choose which one.)

 

This should be changed. So, some options:

 

1. At the *very* least, pick the SO type. I mean, you get to pick one a week from the SSA. I doubt this will break the burgeoning market for SOs.

2. Go to the nearest usable level of common IO instead. Heck, even make it crafted. You might get a level 10 or 15 in that first SSA, sure, but at least it won't expire in 3 quickly-reached levels.

3. A combination of random salvage. Two common and an uncommon. OK, you're getting salvage while killing things (unless you're speeding through.) Some combination like that, I'm not dead set on the numbers.

4 Random "special salvage." Some tailor tickets, some AE tickets, a piece of Halloween salvage or candy cane out of season, even one of the "replacement piece" salvage for use in the PVP zones.

5 Some nifty temp power. A one-use hero/villain summon (like Sky Dragon or Shock Treatment.) Probably at boss strength, roughly like the PPD/Arachnos reinforcement, not the Phalanx summons. (You can get multiple charges, but it would take multiple weeks.) Or some new temp power related to the SSA you played - for SSA 1, a mini obelisk that taunts the Circle specifically, for instance. (Or something else.)

 

Regardless, the one SO ("and only of this type, and  you're going to LIKE it, you!") is ... kind of weak and not up to the other rewards.

 

(Some of this could also be applied to the Sirens Call rewards post as well, actually.)