guide A Comprehensive Guide to the Incarnate System

[thunderforce]

On 8/22/2019 at 4:30 AM, Robotech_Master said:

If you’re picking an Alpha, try to find the Alpha that enhances the most things you do use, and the fewest things you don’t. My Tanker took Resilient Core Paragon, because it boosted Damage Resistance and Taunt.

It did but doesn't; it boosts Damage Resistance, Immob, and To-Hit. I'm looking at it in-game right now (and Mids agrees, for what that's worth).

 

I am pretty certain this was changed on live; I retain a Mids install from before shutdown with data from July 2012, and the source has descriptive text showing the current bonuses on Resilient Core Alphas. (I would say, and because there's nothing about it in the Homecoming/SCORE patch notes... but there's nothing about it in the live patch notes either.)

 

However, in any event I submit the example in the guide would be improved if it matched the current game.

[thunderforce]

Gah, I can't edit that. I should add obviously I recognise it's quite likely you picked it on live at a time when it did Taunt.

[Robotech_Master]

That's weird, because I'm sure when I picked it on Homecoming, it did Taunt. Or at least I thought it did. I didn't even remember it from live. 

 

Oh well, edit edit edit.

[50caltech]

can any one explain how to get crab spiders for pets....not the blasters or reinforcements or the incarnate pets shown in the guide....my veat/crap spider would be better with my own clones as pets....lord recluse has banes as pets....

[thunderforce]

On 8/22/2019 at 4:30 AM, Robotech_Master said:

Empyrean Merits have more conversion options, though. You can convert one of them to 20 Threads—or you can convert 8 of them to a Rare component or 30 to a Very Rare component.

 

You can, if you choose, apply the methods of gaining Thread-based stuff that I’ll cover in a later section for the other Incarnate power slots, and build the Alpha out of them, too. But I would tend to recommend using Shards as much as possible for the Alpha.

I've two suggestions based on these sections of the guide.

 

I think it is worth mentioning if you make your Rares or Very Rares with components, it costs substantial quantities of inf, but if you make them with Empyreans, it's free - and each Empyrean goes to make substantially more than 20 threadsworth of stuff. Unless I'm missing something, converting Empyreans to threads is a mug's game, and perhaps the reader should be warned of this.

 

When I read the second part, learning about this for the first time, I interpreted it as "expect to build most or all of your Alpha with shards". Only later did it become clear, from the drop rate, it means something more like "if you happen to have enough shards to build a bit of your Alpha, use them up". I submit this could be made more clear.

[NevetsYar]

Thank you very much in pointing me to this, I now have alpha sloted on 3 of my 7 level 50's, and going to work on the others.

[Scientist]

Regarding this section; 

"One of the changes Homecoming implemented was automatically unlocking the Incarnate system once you train up to level 50—no Mender Ramiel arc completion required (though you certainly can still do it if you want to see the story play out). Once you train, you’ll immediately start earning Incarnate XP—and not just from special Incarnate content, either, but from ordinary adventuring. 

 

The first batch of Incarnate XP will go toward unlocking your Alpha slot, and it unlocks pretty quickly—do a Task Force of any reasonable length, or even just get in a Rikti Mothership raid, and you’ll almost certainly have it unlocked by the time you’re done. And the other slots will follow that—a little more slowly, but keep adventuring and they’ll be done before you know it."

 

Note that completing Mender Ramiel's arc immediately unlocks your Alpha slot, so that further content you run goes towards unlocking higher incarnate powers.  That could be handy if you are a natural soloer and don't want to wait to run a TF or set of radio missions.  If you are going to bother with it, then, run it right after reaching 50.  Most of his missions are fairly easy to solo, but the Honoree one is rather challenging, and many people ask for help with it. 

[Robotech_Master]

Yeah, that's something I've been meaning to update into this guide, when I get around to it.

[thunderforce]

5 hours ago, Scientist said:

Regarding this section; 

Note that completing Mender Ramiel's arc immediately unlocks your Alpha slot, so that further content you run goes towards unlocking higher incarnate powers.  That could be handy if you are a natural soloer and don't want to wait to run a TF or set of radio missions.  If you are going to bother with it, then, run it right after reaching 50.  Most of his missions are fairly easy to solo, but the Honoree one is rather challenging, and many people ask for help with it. 

The note itself seems clear enough and I agree it would make a useful addition, but "if you are a natural soloer, do this arc that you probably can't solo" seems somewhat curious.

[Uun]

12 hours ago, thunderforce said:

The note itself seems clear enough and I agree it would make a useful addition, but "if you are a natural soloer, do this arc that you probably can't solo" seems somewhat curious.

Anybody can solo the Honoree mission. It requires some strategy and a few inspirations.

[Robotech_Master]

2 minutes ago, Uun said:

Anybody can solo the Honoree mission. It requires some strategy and a few inspirations.

And I imagine that Envenomed Daggers and the pets from the P2W store could also help, for those who have that kind of money.

 

I might just have to give that a shot when my level 48 Super Reflexes/Titan Weapons Tanker hits 50.

[Uun]

5 minutes ago, Robotech_Master said:

And I imagine that Envenomed Daggers and the pets from the P2W store could also help, for those who have that kind of money.

 

I might just have to give that a shot when my level 48 Super Reflexes/Titan Weapons Tanker hits 50.

I've soloed it many times and never required more than a few purples and maybe a break free. I just soloed it on a cold/beam defender. Should be a piece of cake on a tank.

 

The trick is to pull the EBs (individually) into the other room and around the corner. I also try to take out the portals on the near side of the bridge before engaging the EBs.

[thunderforce]

1 hour ago, Uun said:

Anybody can solo the Honoree mission. It requires some strategy and a few inspirations.

I think you might have meant to reply to the person who suggested otherwise; I was just commenting on what they wrote.

[Crysis]

On 8/21/2019 at 11:30 PM, Robotech_Master said:

 

I would recommend that, apart from the Alpha, the first two Incarnate slots you should work on are Lore and Destiny. The reason is, those slots provide the Incarnate Level Shifts at Tier 3, making you that much more effective in Incarnate Trials (which I’ll discuss in a moment). Once you have all three, you’ll be at level 53, which means you’ll be on a more even footing with the level 54 mobs in most Incarnate Trials and other Incarnate content. That means you’ll be a more effective fighter in those trials, and those trials will be more likely to be successful.

This is a great guide, but I think this part right here should be emphasized.

 

I’ve seen my fair share of players who unlock Alpha, slot it to T3 for the level shift and then run straight up the Judgement and Interface trees trying to T3/T4 those out.  That’s fine, free will and all that, but many of them quit before getting their other two level shifts because they find the Incarnate trials or DA story missions “too hard” or claim they “can’t do much of anything.”

 

I always build out Alpha to T3 and Destiny plus Lore to T3 before doing anything else.  The level shifts, once achieved, give you the best feel for what your “Incarnate build” is going to feel/play like.  It can actively persuade you to go a different path for Hybrid, Interface and Judgement in some cases.  I have some builds that struggle with Endurance all the way up to 50, but once you get Ageless to at least T3, that’s entirely a non-issue and can literally allow you to do things like totally respec into a higher recharge build, pull out most -END IO’s (that aren’t contributing to set bonuses at any rate) and replace them with Procs, etc.  And run the variety of “speed” TF’s and iTrials that often would leave my character face planted as a healthy, contributing member of the league.  Those three level shifts, and the benefits the T3 achievement provides, provides the backbone of your Incarnate build, the one you will ultimately play with for remainder of the game and/or retire that toon with.  So getting them quickly, to me, is the key to not “wasting” the rest of the Empyrean merits you’ll earn and spend on the T4’s.

[CAVE ANT]

Hi, I hope I can get your help and an answer to what I'm doing wrong.

When I create a new incarnate power, it replaces the previous so I don't have it anymore. Am I supposed to make sure nothing is slotted (remove whatever is slotted) before creating something new for that slot? I'm wasting a lot of threads trying to make old ones that were replaced to get the new, just to get to that tier 4. What's the best way to slot? I usually know which side I want to end up on before I start.

 -Thanks!

[Eric the Grey]

Wonderful and very useful guide.  Thanks Robotech_Master for writing this.

 

For the nay-sayers, yes it is long. It took me about a week to go through it all, reading some each night after (and sometimes before) work, but it's worthwhile.  It's too bad the forum doesn't have a TOC option for linking to sections within a post.  That would break it up and make it easier to find something specific without a lot of scrolling, but we work with what we have. 🙂  

 

At any rate, thanks again for the guide. 

 

 

😎 Eric the Grey

[Ejlertson]

As a newly minted Incarnate, I just want to thank you for this 🙂

[BKEASON]

I just found this. I was trying to build the top of the tree first. Because I'm an idiot, 

 

Thank you so much for this. 

[Wavicle]

I'm still super confused about the differences between individual abilities in some of the trees.

Especially Hybrid. I found this article on the wiki: https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Hybrid_Slot_Abilities

But it didn't really answer my questions.

 

Specifically, I'm trying to figure out what the differences between the Support Hybrids are, because it's really unclear with some what are the advantages and disadvantages, even with the details laid out on the wiki.

[Uun]

14 hours ago, Wavicle said:

I'm still super confused about the differences between individual abilities in some of the trees.

Especially Hybrid. I found this article on the wiki: https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Hybrid_Slot_Abilities

But it didn't really answer my questions.

 

Specifically, I'm trying to figure out what the differences between the Support Hybrids are, because it's really unclear with some what are the advantages and disadvantages, even with the details laid out on the wiki.

Using the tier 4 for illustration. Lower tiers have smaller buffs.

Hybrid Support Core provides a 6% buff to you and your leaguemates, 12% buff to pets and has a 50 foot radius.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=incarnate.hybrid.support_genome_8

Hybrid Support Radial provides an 8% buff to you, your leaguemates and pets and has an 80 foot radius. 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=incarnate.hybrid.support_genome_9

 

[Wavicle]

9 hours ago, Uun said:

Using the tier 4 for illustration. Lower tiers have smaller buffs.

Hybrid Support Core provides a 6% buff to you and your leaguemates, 12% buff to pets and has a 50 foot radius.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=incarnate.hybrid.support_genome_8

Hybrid Support Radial provides an 8% buff to you, your leaguemates and pets and has an 80 foot radius. 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=incarnate.hybrid.support_genome_9

 

 

The problem I was having was with the tier 3, but I figured it out. The text on the powers is wrong, and says all four t3 Support Hybrids are 50 ft range, which didn't make any sense. But the detailed info has the right numbers.

[Zappalina]

Hello, On the picture below what is "null"?   Also is Clarion the only Destiny incarnate power that provides status protection? 

[Wavicle]

1 hour ago, Zappalina said:

Hello, On the picture below what is "null"?   Also is Clarion the only Destiny incarnate power that provides status protection? 

I don’t know what the Null represents, but to answer your other question:

 

yes, Clarion is the only Destiny with status protection. However the Melee Hybrid power also offers some status protection.

[Zappalina]

1 hour ago, Wavicle said:

I don’t know what the Null represents, but to answer your other question:

 

yes, Clarion is the only Destiny with status protection. However the Melee Hybrid power also offers some status protection.

Thank you Wavicle

[Wavicle]

The significant difference is that Destiny can be made permanent and Hybrid cannot, but it can still be useful for sure.