So, this thread hasn't been posted on in over a year.
What's happened with City of Heroes?
Well, now there's something NEW for all you level 50 kids to fool around with: The Incarnate System.
Basically, it's an advancement system that is still being rolled out and tested. However, the first tier of this system, the
Alpha Slot has already been unlocked.
With the Alpha Slot, you select one of four primary attributes (Recharge, Damage, Accuracy, and Endurance Cost), and work on its progression by using Incarnate Shards, which are salvage items that will drop from any level 50 enemy. When you load the Alpha Slot enhancement in to the slot, it will give you an across-the-board bonus of its type to all of your powers. They recharge faster, or deal more damage. Since this is an enhancement bonus, it is subject to the Enhancement Diversification penalties that have been in place for many years. However, as you improve your Alpha slot enhancement, its bonus will grow, and a portion of that bonus will not be subject to the ED rules. For example, the top-tier Musculature enhancement I'm seeking for my Blaster boosts the damage of all my powers by 45%. 2/3rds of that bonus is not subject to the ED rule, so by using that, I will have, at the very least, a 30% damage boost across the board.
Also, at a certain point, the Alpha Slots will also grant a Level Shift, which will increase your base stats for HP, base damage, and so forth, to an effective level of 51. This will be reflected by the number 50 (+1) when targeting a player character.
This is all just the beginning of the Incarnate system. Already, the next 4 slots are in beta, and they promise to be some really nifty things, including a summoned pet for any archetype, a new AoE blast, and much more. I don't even know what all it is. TA? Care to elaborate on what else is coming?
Anyway, now's a great time to get back in to CoX if you were ever waffling on it.