The Ogre

@(Unverified) The transmutation stones just let you transfer the stats from one weapon/armor to another - with enough stones, you'd never have to give up a weapon/armor skin you like because you found a weapon with better stats (say, 'cos you leveled up a bit).

@ScottishViking "Don't know why people downvoted this.."

Because double heat sinks are the bestest thing in the whole wide universe and anyone who dares think that those and the other Clan tech additions turned BattleTech into a horribly unbalanced mess are The Enemy, of course. :P

@Ehra And it guarantees that anyone who likes their HoM weapons will be able to use them through the entire game.

Such a shame it's set at the start of the Clan Invasion (ie, when it turned from BattleTech into MechWarrior, mangling the board game for the sake of their new RPG).

"As a side note, most karma vendors I came across in my time in the beta had transmutation stones . I think that mightn't be real news, but it's worth pointing out."

Actually, it's definitely real news - don't think any of the YouTubers from the press beta mentioned that you could get them from karma, vendors and many people have been worried that, being vanity items for sale in the cash shop, that they'd be cash shop-only.

@(Unverified) "I guess it is possible some people don't know what "beta" means?"

Few people do - and that includes modern devs. Sadly, these days "betas" are mostly only marketing events rather than to find bugs to squash or to make sure that the numbers're properly balanced before general release.

MMORPGs can NOT be balanced for PvP, no matter how much they want to, unless they go the fixed-bar route like FPSes to reduce the variables. Even then, however, it's a major chore.

Static bars that give you the feeling that you're playing your preferred class' style rather than a generic, and which can stand on their own without requiring specific classes are the way to go.

@Vodkawater The better gear part was referring to point 2, really, the Heroics.

@Vodkawater "Increased XP Gains:

That is correct. They don't penalize you like other MMO's with lower experience. You actually get more."

In other words, they penalize the solo player with less XP (not to mention lower quality loot and no "social points", meaning worse gear overall, from both the stats and bling perspectives).

@rgolch "But grouping is the essense of MMO's"

No. Socializing is the essence of MMOs. Grouping for content almost always gets in the way of that, outside of guild-only groups.