page 3 [FOCUSED FEEDBACK] New Expanded +5 & Incarnate +6/+7 Difficulty Options

[Troo]

I'm confused. (not hard to do)

Which of the below is applicable to "New Expanded +5 & Incarnate +6/+7 Difficulty Options"?

 

15 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

All you'd need is a basic build and a team to start cashing in.  Poor folks can get richer too. 

 

On 11/13/2025 at 8:27 PM, Uncle Shags said:

People are going to get demolished.

 

I've been tinkering around with a couple different tankers on +5 radios.  It's not easy!  Taking on two groups of Arachnos, Carnies, or CoT is very risky!  They'll getcha!

 

All of a sudden 90% resists, soft capped defense, 13 points of status protection, etc might not be enough.  Immortality at +4 is a faceplant at +5 if you're not careful.  

 

[Uncle Shags]

3 hours ago, Troo said:

I'm confused. (not hard to do)

Which of the below is applicable to "New Expanded +5 & Incarnate +6/+7 Difficulty Options"?

 

I don't think those two quotes are incompatible. 

 

Are people going to get demolished? I think so.  Especially solo. Some people aren't going to make adjustments in their tactics or builds to accommodate the increased difficulty and will be surprised.  Notice I said faceplant "if you're not careful." 

 

I don't think it's only about money. For example, my SR tank build wasn't holding up vs +5/6s so I had to change it. I shifted things around and added weave for more defense. It worked. But it didn't cost me a dime.

 

I think a diverse team of decent 50/51s will be able to handle it. Some will be faster than others, and some will choose to run +4s or +3s just like now, but that's just the way it is. You won't get kicked off a team for a budget build any more than you will for running a JJ one or for smashing your face on the keyboard now. Billion dollar build won't be the price of admission. 

 

I'm betting you probably won't be able to bring a bunch of lowbies though... And maybe +1 incarnate will be more important. But that's easy to get. 

 

Who knows, maybe team leads will be demanding resumes and links to mids for team membership. But I doubt it. 

[Seed22]

8 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

 

Have you tried it? Solo? On a team? 

Solo im not going to do because I rarely do +4 solo. I personally like rolling around +2 or 3 because it's fun enough for me. But it's just gaming common sense. It's the same mob, but with stat increase. The exact same tactic you were using before will work, because the mob just got a bump in stats. Only thing that'll change is at +5 onward you might have to drop a lowbie for a 50. 

 

But on live, once I'm 50 on this new alt I'll give it a whirl to prove my point.

 

Watch, with just using some basic insp, and hitting barrier, this will be steamrolled on a team  in a day.  Folks here are acting like the mobs are getting HM powers 🤣

 

Last Edit: I really want to stress that I am NOT saying this shouldnt occur, the diff increases, I am simply saying it wont change anywhere near as much of things that people think it will. Its the same mobs, same powers, you just might have to use insp this time and not have 3/4th of your team be varying degrees of lowbie.

Edited Sunday at 02:52 PM by Seed22

[Uncle Shags]

44 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

The exact same tactic you were using before will work, because the mob just got a bump in stats.

 

Maybe. I haven't tried it on a team yet. We'll have to see.

 

But I have tried it solo quite a bit on various toons, and I don't think "a bump in stats" fully captures it. It's not just that they have more hp and hit harder. They also have a greater chance to hit, so defenses built for +4 are going to fail. Mez lasts longer and hits more often so status protection is going to fail. Mezzes will end faster against them so bosses will be running around smacking people. Which will be exciting because +6 bosses chunked my tank like an AV rarely does.  Pulling every group in sight was a +4 tactic you could get away with pretty easily. I'm not sure that'll work as well vs +5/6s.

 

I don't know about you, but pug teams I join range in quality from steamroll to can barely take out MJ AVs. I suspect below average pugs are going to have a hard time. 

 

But hey! Maybe I'm biased because I want this to be hard. I'm really looking forward to the challenge, so maybe I'm overly optimistic. And, in principle, I like to make it a point to make room for other's opinions. But on the other hand, I'm also basing my impressions on actual experience on test.

[Shin Magmus]

     I'm excited to try it on Live by providing the specific numerical edge needed to swing things back into our favor with my Poison/Fire Defender.  Defender scalars on debuffs are going to matter a lot when they get further reduced by the increased effects of The Purple Patch.

[lemming]

I've noticed differences needed just in +2 to +4 depending on team makeup.

One group I roll with, +4 content gets smashed into bits because the players are all highly competent and have good builds.   Then in PUGs, same tactics just don't work at +4.

For the average and casual players, it will definitely be shown.

[Perfect Square]

On 11/14/2025 at 3:52 PM, Faultline said:

 

This is news to me and I have no idea why this would be happening. The Incarnate critters were expanded to level 60. Further investigation needed.

I specifically saw this in Dream Doctor's 2nd finale: "Stop Mot from Devouring the World". I'll try other Incarnate arcs soon to see if I can duplicate. I was set to +7x8 to try to get the higher level groups to spawn.

[Troo]

On 11/15/2025 at 9:47 AM, Cobalt Arachne said:

You can't buy and sell nothing, and nothing is what every single player started with.

 

So no, trading is not an intended method because it can't exist without you or other players playing the game the intended way. It's a dependency.

 

There is not ONE correct way to play. I'll double down on: There are many ways to play. Crafting, trading, resource farming, etc are ALL intended ways to play and "gear up".

 

Your opinion can be: There is an intended way to play.

That doesn't make it troo for everyone or the game as a whole.

 

I have characters who, for example, have memorized recipes and can craft enhancements with just a couple common salvage (which are seeded).

So, players can in fact create something from nothing using no more than infamy.

 

We can also buy recipes outside the black market and craft them. No other player contribution required. No dependency.

 

Loot drops are not the end-all-be-all.

 

======================

 

"New Expanded +5 & Incarnate +6/+7 Difficulty Options" may require some players to improve their builds in order to participate in the new content.

That's to be expected, purple patch and all.

Just the ~1/3 drop in base ToHit from +4 to +5 (iirc) may have folks other than min/maxers looking for ways to eek out a bit more performance and/or free up some slots.

With that in mind, scarcity and increased prices could have a net negative impact on average players.