Arcas_NA

Name: The Offensive Line

Shard: CoH/CoV

Overall Theme: A football based, near all-melee superteam

Backstory: Nothing much to them. They are a football team.

Group Make-up: 1 controller (illusion/kinetics), 1 defender (sonic/sonic), 6 tanks (super strength/invul.)
<ul type="square">[*]Controller: The "coach" of the team is known for blinding the opponent from his plays, concealing players from the defense, or even outright deceiving them and making the opponent see extra receivers that aren't really there (Blind, Deceive, Flash, Group Invisibility, Phantom Army). He is also serves as a bit of a team medic, patching up sore bruises and giving the players whatever shots they happen to need to help them play up to a pro level (every kinetic power except repel) (and some powers from the medicine pool). He's also the taxi, who gets the team around from game to game (recall, teleport, team teleport... many of which might be respeced out of once inertial reduction comes into the picture).
[*]Defender: The quarterback of the team is known for a dominating voice that wills his teammates to succeed, intimidates opponents, and calls out audibles with ease in the loudest of arenas. So, of course, he is a sonic/sonic defender. His primary focus is mainly on Sonic Siphon, Disruption Field, and Clarity. He puts a lot of work into his sonic blast attacks, as the -res of sonic is a big part of the group effort. To this he adds the full load of leadership powers and some of the leaping pool powers.
[*]Tankers(s): The tankers make up the bulk of the team, and are scrankers in every sense of the word. Some of them, the bigger linemen, take more powers from invulnerability. Some of the smaller tankers are very offensively focused and may only grab the quick and easy auto powers and the non-toggles from invulnerability. All the tankers put a lot of time and enhancements into their super strength powers, while also dabbling in powers from fitness, fighting, leaping, presence, or speed.[/list]Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: Nothing much to add on costumes. Fairly muscular, some standard male, some huge. Standard football fare: hitech helmets, numbers on chest, sleek tights and sleek chest tights, shoulder pads, chin guards or iron jaws. Mess around with the pattern options for the pants and chest, as well as the color combinations to come up with a cool looking standard uniform for the team (supergroup mode can be the 'home' colors). Make the coach look like however you want a coach to look.

Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: Standard offensive all-melee strategies. With the large number of SS tankers, mass hand clap stacking becomes very attractive. This is a very offense-first team. The sonic/sonic defender and the controller are both here to augment the team's offense and to brutally weaken the damage output and damage resistance of the opponent.

Alternative Suggestions: There is always room to change the defender-skills choices for the controller and defender. While you do probably want to hang onto sonic blast, radiation and empathy are also strong choices if one wants to get out of sonic resonance and kinetics.

This same team also lends very well to City of Villians. Simply replace the tankers with brutes, and the defender/controller with two corruptors, one sonic/sonic and one sonic/kinetics. As for costume choices, I'd imagine that the villain form of this team would look something like a group of rabid Oakland Raiders fans. Lots of black, spikes, barbed wire, etc. (Now I just have to sit back and wait for the first football-esque villains with names like "HeHateMe" to pop up. &lt;--- random football fan inside joke).

Hopefully someone can get the hero and villain versions of these teams together one day for a "friendly" scrimmage.

More to come later....

Name: King's Row Martial Arts

Shard: CoH

Overall Theme: A powerful superteam that is part identical build, part all-melee, and part disorient team.

Backstory: An old and wise former hero and martial arts master, founder of his own "Air Fist" style of martial arts, decides to form a martial arts school for the sometimes forgotten youth of King's Row.

Group Make-up: 7 natural scrappers (martial arts/super reflexes or martial arts/invunerability). 1 magic mind/storm controller.

<ul type="square"> [*]Controller: The controller, who keeps the team from being all melee, is the magical leader of the school and a central figure in the team. He is a martial arts master whose mental abilities (Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate, Mass Hyp, Total Domination, Terrify) combine with his magical martial arts skills (Gale, O2 Boost, Steamy Mist, Thunder Clap, Tornado).

He is a melee-stormer. The rare storm defender that skips hurricane and that has thunder clap jump to the forefront as one of the more important powers of the set. He supplements his magical martial arts with the entire fighting pool set. And his "master's aura" is enhanced by taking challenge, intimidate, and invoke panic from the presence pool, which will meld with his Terrify ability. Late in his career he will grab the final three powers of the psionic mastery pool.

He spends most of his time with all-the-time steamy mist and hovering around with a hover nicely slotted for speed. He also takes fly and recall friend and serves as the travel taxi for the team.
[*]Scrappers: The scrappers of the team are the students of the martial arts school. All share the martial arts primary. Most will have the super reflexes secondary, but some may have invulnerability.

Thunder Kick and Cobra Strike both come very early for all the scrappers on this team, and the synergy of these two powers times 7 will create an impressive disorienting effect. Since travel is taken care of by the controller, the scrappers can invest in the entire fighting pool (skipping kick) as well as the entire fitness pool. Some of the scrappers may even decide to take jump kick or flurry for stylistic reasons. The more skilled students will eventually evolve into powers from weapon mastery or body mastery.[/list]
Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: The controller may have a standard old and tattered looking martial arts uniform. He'll have the typical long beard and wizened aged look.

The scrappers all will wear nearly identical white dobak (martial arts uniforms) with belts. Some small differences may be sleeves/no sleeves, tattered/non-tattered edges. But for the most parts their uniforms are identical. Much more custimization can go into the face and body type. Some are large, some are small, some are male, some female. All are around teenage/early adult age. And pretty natural "friend down the street" looks since they really are natural heroes.

A main draw of martial arts, super reflexes, and invulnerability is to maintain the "pure" look of the mostly natural team. Outside of the controller, there really are not a lot of flashing lights, magical effects, and strange colors that take away from the stylized look of a bunch of regular martial arts teenagers taking on tough missions with only their fists and feet.

Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: This near all-melee team is first and foremost a disorient team. As buggy as disorient may be, a big part of this team's defense relies on keeping key opponents disoriented, feared, knocked down or other wise unable to attack. Two stacked cobra strikes will disorient any boss. The presence of seven cobra strikes combined with the infrequent stuns from thunder kick and boxing as well as the miraculously useful thunder clap will help keep a large percentage of enemies too stunned to rally much of a counter-attack. The large number of disorient powers allows the team to put only a few disorient enhancements into the key powers and they don't have to go too wild with it since you have so many disorient powers to begin with (thunder clap should receive a healthy serving of enhancements, however).

The large amount of disorienting also gives the team more leeway to give a lot of focus to offense, with some of the teammembers keeping minimal maintenance slots on the defensive powers.

Healing, when it is needed goes the same route as many all-melee teams... pass the teammate a respite. However, the team does have the benefit of O2 Boost, which can become a machine gun heal with a few recharge SOs and heal SOs. The player of the storm controller will become a skilled user of SHIFT-selecting or binds to quickly select the teammates for heals, even though they will rarely be needed.

Combat will typically be a wild all-melee affair as the entire team rushes into melee range, lays down disorients on the most critical enemies, and then allowing the combat to devolve into a mess of stumbling enemies, cowering feared enemies, and those enemies knocked down and knocked back. In most cases, a few seconds into the combat engagement, it is already over for all intents and purposes. Since just about all teammembers will own swift with maybe a couple of extra slots, there isn't much of a problem chasing down a knocked back enemy or a stumbling away villain. The lack of an aura heal makes this a rare team that can disobey the usual "stay within aura range" rule. However, most may still want to hang close to remain inside the steamy mist.

Alternative Suggestions: Two of the scrappers can be replaced by very offensively built super strength/invul. tanks. One the main focuses of the tanks is to develop their hand clap skills to match the thunder clap of their teacher. Without even mentioning the scrappers, this triple disorienting aura combo is something to fear. A strong arguement has also been made to change the controller from mind/storm to mind/kinetic for the melee loving damage buffs, transfusion, increase density, and speed boost. Tactically, it's a great fit, but I still place the mind/storm higher because of thunder clap and in terms of coolness and the overall team theme. You, of course, are free to do whatever you want. But those that know me know that I tend to value unique features and cool fun a little bit higher than how fast the group can gain levels.

The original SuperTeam guide was posted around a year ago this time. It was a guide about those special teams that group only with each other. Whose specific power and enhancement choices are geared to combine with their teammates to produce terrific results.

This guide thread is about putting forth ideas for potential SuperTeams. No one may ever play these teams, but it's always fun to imagine what a team can do when you gather together 8 dedicated indivduals.

Feel free to submit as many potential SuperTeams as you like. Here are some example items you may want to include.

Name: What is the name of the SuperTeam

Shard: City of Heroes or City of Villains or both

Overall Theme(s): A brief statement about the overall theme, goals, and purpose of the SuperTeam.

Backstory: Any statements about the backstory for the team (if any).

Group Make-up: A discussion about what type of ATs will make-up the team and their respective power choices. Imagine that the SuperTeam is played by 8 consistent players, making up a single team. What types of heroes/villains will each player use? What are their key powers?

Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: How will the team behave in combat. What will be their usual strategies and tactics?

Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: What does the team look like? How would you set up the costumes? Anything unique with names, colors, style?

Alternative Suggestions: Use this section to suggest different alternative routes the team can go in terms of powers and AT make-up.

Feel free to discuss any posted SuperTeam ideas. If you like an idea and want to change it, feel free to repost it with the same name with something like "version 2" or "(alternate)" after it, and your additional ideas.

There really isn't a right or wrong to SuperTeams. Some players love the effectiveness of SuperTeams, to them everything is about how quickly experience is gained, how fast they can steamroll an invincible mission, and how many seconds it takes to drop the nearest archvillain. To others, it's about the style, the costumes, the roleplay possibilities where gaining experience quickly isn't nearly as important as looking cool while doing it.

I consider myself a mix of both worlds. I started running unique teams because I enjoy the effectiveness and pulling a team through impossible odds. But after climbing the advancement ladder more than a few times, I just don't have the same need to do it extremely quickly any more. So I also like to explore more unique teams that you don't see everyday, staying in search of the next novel experience.

Anyway, with that part of my bias out the of way, I'll start it off with the next two posts with two teams that both explore two areas that many players have never had the chance to explore. Near all-melee teams and disorienting effects.

Tons more to come, I'll be back with others in the future as I write them up.

One of the better guides I've seen in quite some time. Very well done. 5 stars!

[ QUOTE ]
I started a superteam in mid-March that your post was largely the inspiration for. Thank you!

[/ QUOTE ]

No, thank you. It's always good to hear that my long-winded posts actually help other players.

[ QUOTE ]
it is a pure ST - 8 characters that were planned and coordinated from scratch, and only play together, twice a week at scheduled times (you'd better believe that was hard to arrange)

[/ QUOTE ]

Of that, I have no doubt. It's quite the accomplishment.

[ QUOTE ]
One of the rules I had in constructing the builds: no duplication of power sets. I wanted versitility. That meant we couldn't have a /inv scrapper since we have a inv tanker. It might be equally powerful to have 8 radiation defenders, but I wanted all 8 of us to be bringing something truly unique to the table. And its true - any 4-5 of us together is still a good team, but 6, 7, or 8...so many ways to take everything down.

[/ QUOTE ]

My knack has always been for overkill stacking of a few specific attributes over versatility, even to the point of stupidity at times.

But I certainly notice the great amount of potential power in your team, in so many areas.

You have three powerful defense debuff members in the broadsword scrap, your defender, and the radiation controller (and to a little extent the AR blaster).

The EM tank and AR blaster can join forces and become a powerful disorienting force just by themselves. The empath can even join in that effort with Dark Pit.

So already you're fighting hordes of massively debuffed and disoriented enemies, just waiting for the hugely buffed fire blaster and spines scrapper to let them have it.

A few random comments that may or may not mean anything:

No combustion for Hephaestus? Ok, so maybe it's just a silly dream of mine, but I do want to see that blaster that can make good strategic use of powers like combustion, blazing aura, consume, burn, and hot feet. I have no doubt that you guys can do it, easily, but different players have different preferences. I've heard the case from a lot of blasters saying, "Well, if I wanted a melee hero I would have been a scrapper."

(Important public notice: The above statement is 100% SuperTeam focused. Any blaster attempts at blazing aura, hot feet or the like in a non-SuperTeam or worse, a solo setting, may result in death, debt, and uncontrollable whinning to the devs.)

If you're thinking about slotting Hermes broadsword with defense debuff, take your pick. To my knowledge all broadsword attacks that do defense debuff all equally do a "moderate" debuff. So there is no "best" power to throw the enhancements in like there are for the defender and controller.

The same can be said for disorient, there are "better" powers to enhance and most of the focus should go to Dark Pit, Beanbag, Taser, Stun, Bone Smasher, and Total Focus.

Anyway, please check back in and give us highlights of how the group is doing and stories about your mission and arena victories.

[ QUOTE ]
Why all rain? Well, its become a favorite pasttime to bash the various rains (rain of fire, rain of ice, blizzard, freezing rain) so I want to see what happens when you stack lots of them together and thusly

Ice Blasters
Fire Blasters
Storm/** defenders and
**/Storm controllers lets gang up and rain on someones parade.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have honestly, never seen a team like this, and that's a good thing. It's really unique.

The controllers are definately a help, I'd be leaning towards Earth or Ice control personally.

It would be interesting to see what happens if the team members heavily slot their rains with ::gasp:: damage enhancements.

The naysayers would jump in at this point saying "damage is a waste, they're only little "1s" in damage." Well, yeah, but that's lots and lots of "1s" from lots and lots of rains. All of which pretty much already have big inherent accuracy bonuses. What if you also added eight stacked assaults and kinetic damage buffs on top of that?

Another idea too would be to make it an all 'location' power focused team. And just let them blow through hazard zones with ease.

Throw a burn tank in the middle with a dark defenders' tar patch, and a few controller location powers, then unload the rains. Everything will probably be dead long before the tank has to worry about any 'fear' issues.

You'll probably even have a few assault rifle blasters following you around, asking to join in for a little "offensive igniting."

[ QUOTE ]
Invuln/Super Str Tankers, Assault Rifle/Devices Blasters, and Martial Arts/Super Reflex Scrappers

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm already drooling at the possible combination of up to six potential disorient powers. Five of which are mag 3!! Even without much enhancement, you guys are probably a stunning machine.

[ QUOTE ]
After some experimenting we have determined that our stacked Assault is adding a noticeable increase in the damage for all attacks. While the amount added is relatively small, it works out to be, literally, over a thousand extra points of damage over the course of a mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

And lucky us, come issue 4 it'll have a more improved boost.

[ QUOTE ]
Travel - one blaster has Teleport and Recall Friend. He heads to the mission while the team heads to contacts and stocks up on any supplies we may need. As everyone finishes he 'ports them to the mission. This freed up one--and in several cases two--power that the rest of the team to could use more effectively for attacks or pool powers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well done on this front. Even more so than stamina and endurance management, I think the travel powers are 'the' test that seperates the most dedicated SuperTeams from the rest. This will reap true benefits later on.

But speaking of endurance management. Fitness powers fit right in with natural heroes, I'd imagine. Is your team going that route or will they use a combination of enhancements and other methods?

[ QUOTE ]
Rooks’ Gambit are about to embark on the Cavern of Transcendence Trial and I really look forward to seeing how well we perform.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sure you will all do exceptionally well. The only 'challenge' that comes from the Cavern of Transcendence are issues of communication and team coordination... both of which you guys have in full.

I keep going back to the Cavern trial as a test and workout of my "group leading" skills. Getting 7 strangers who just met five minutes ago on the same page for that one is a enjoyable challenge at best and a nightmare at worst.

[ QUOTE ]
Against the CoH AI we are just about unstoppable (well, for level 16, anyway…) but I have no idea how well our team would do in an Arena environment.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know the specifics of your powers, but I'm sure you guys will do better than most in the arena. If for no other reason, because the fact that you all know each other very well. Add to that the potential for powerful disorients, and the 1-2 power advantage from the travel power situation... all should help out.

As for the post-16 game. I think you guys will do great. But I will say one thing, all the scrappers and blasters that dipped into medicine should pick-up stimulant without hesitation or question. And you know the saying with status protection... it's best used before you need it. That'll take a nice big chunk out of one of the main drawbacks of lacking defender powers.

Since this post hasn't seen light for a few months, here's my official "the arena is coming soon" bump.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. So many Supergroups tell members how to name their characters, how to set up their costumes, and what colors to use. But a precious few tell their members which powers to take and which enhancements to use.

Every Supergroup in the game right now has the ability to blow through invincible missions and dominate the arena if they want too.

It all comes down to a little planning, preperation, and teamwork. It really is just that simple.

Time to keep you updated on recent Superteam activity:

Radiation Defenders: First and foremost, check out the excellent discussion/project of Radation Defenders by TopDoc (Freedom).

Illusion/Rad Controllers: Based off of TopDoc's project, comes this controller team. (Champion)

Illusion Controllers: The Benders of Light, another all-illusion group exists on Triumph.

Assault Rifle Blasters: I don't know how active the Riflemen are today, but they used to be a pure assault/dev group, that changed to assault/any. If you've never seen an assault rifle group, then you owe it to yourself to watch videos on their site. Check out the ways they combine powers, use range to their advantage, and stack Full Autos for max carnage. (Freedom)

All Defender Supergroups: Protector, Liberty, Victory, Triumph.

Special mention goes to Defenders of the Apocalypse on Victory, an offender all-defender group that also uses combined leadership and combined travel powers.

Scrapper/Tanker: Frontline is an scrapper/tanker group over on Liberty.

All-Tanker: In a similar vein, here is info on a pure tanker team forming on Champion. (In other news, anyone have a link to the tanker supergroup discussions on the tanker forums from a few months back?)

Dark/Dark Defender Gatherings: Triumph and Protector

Lastly, I caught a peek at an all-kinetic supergroup while playing on Virtue, running around with perma-speed boost and increase density, mowing everything down. Anyone know anything about this group? They all have similar costumes and "Espresso" in front of their names.

[ QUOTE ]
Who has done this before?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been trying to find some of the old rad/rad supergroup threads, but I think they all went the way of deletion.

[ QUOTE ]
How did it work out?

[/ QUOTE ]

In a word, unreal. Of course, the devs later found a serious bug in some defense debuff powers that they later fixed. (It worked much like the bug for Smoke Grenade: 110% instead of 10%). So in other words, there wasn't much that could stop these teams.

I haven't seen any dedicated rad/rad teams in recent months.

[ QUOTE ]
What Defender Secondaries have the fastest animation times?

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like you already have it... nothing gets faster than radiation blast. (Elec might make a close second).

[ QUOTE ]
Would you make up a level 1 char to try this out?

[/ QUOTE ]

Lucky for me I have some free time for once. I'll head over to Freedom tonight.

Thanks for the positive comments, I appreciate it.

[ QUOTE ]
I have a pseudo-super duo. I play a Energy blaster and my wife an FF/energy defender. The focus on knockback is amazing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that does sound like fun. On one hand you have double energy torrents, double power pushes, double explosive blasts and novas.

Next you have the force field knockbacks. A few recharges and range in Force bolt turns it into a machine-gun knockbacker. Heavy end reduction enhancement and stamina can take Repulsion Field near perma. I don't even want to think about Repulsion Bomb and Force Bubble. My head would start spinning.

And if all that wasn't enough... you have force field defense. Both of you probably haven't died in months. Outstanding team.

[ QUOTE ]
As people have left and joined the game, the original Everynighters Super team has changed a bit, but we always try and add new members who believe this strategy whole heartedly. it is truely a site to see a team that's built around each other.

[/ QUOTE ]

No doubt. I get a big kick out of watching identical teams. The constant bolts of a energy blaster team, the sounds of eights assault rifles going off, or the constant spray of damage numbers when a few fire tanks get together.

The biggest thrill for me is seeing those super efficient teams that hunt in the hazard/trial zones. These guys will "hit" a group with maybe one or two strikes and it's over. Usually they hardly even stop moving. One strike and they are already looking for the next. Just working their way down the street BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, leaving huge path of enemies behind them. I will always be impressed by those teams.

[ QUOTE ]
What, no mention of rad defenders in the slow or attack debuff Theme Teams? Lingering Radiation (nearly max slow with only 2 +3 slow SO's, over a very large AE radius, and lasts for 30s) and Radiation Infection (-90 to -100% acc debuff when fully slotted, in a moderate to large AE, no need to hit to put it up, stays up until you drop the toggle or target is defeated) are probably the best slow and attack debuffs in the game!

[/ QUOTE ]

Bah, I knew I was going to slip up somewhere. I remember someone jumped on me when I wrote the Perez guide, because I forgot to specifically mention claw scrappers.

I don't know if I'm ready to call it the best slow debuff in the game. Spines scrappers and Ice Controllers may have a few words about that. But yeah, the rad/rad is a huge boost to both teams and I shouldn't have forgotten about them.

But come on, you gotta give me credit for including Ice tanks with the end drain team.

[ QUOTE ]
A further note on slow, I think I remember reading a dev comment somewhere that slow enhancements do NOT affect the -recharge aspect of slow, only the -speed aspect. Anyone know whether or not this is true?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I have heard as well. There doesn't seem to be any way to enhance the -recharge effect. So I guess the best we can do is to just stack more powers for the base -recharge. On that note, what happened to all the Psychic Blast defenders. I just don't see them that often these days.

[ QUOTE ]
So what happens when your empath defender loses his internet connection for a week? Or goes on vacation? Or gets tired of his hero? Or gets tired of the entire game and quits? What do you do when the team taxi isn't available? Or the rad defender who loudly claimed that nobody needed to take Hasten because he had it covered with AM?

[/ QUOTE ]

Look at me. Right now, I'm not in any SuperTeams. Most of my RL friends that played CoH have moved on to other things. That's life.

I think I lump all the SuperTeam stuff with the phrase: "If it was easy, everyone would do it."

I don't believe it's feasible for every team out there to build around each other. But there are groups of real life friends, and extremely coordinated supergroups that can pull it off.

But having said that, I don't think every team needs to go full out. Even teams where everyone has their own travel powers, and everyone has Hasten/Stamina, can still choose complementary power sets. And can still choose similar powers/enhancements for stacking.

Everyone can't maintain the true SuperTeam, but just about every supergroup can still use some of these concepts to become a better team.

Lots of grouping guides out there say pretty much the same thing (I know, I wrote a few): Tanks must have provoke, defenders don't blast only heal, blasters to the back, etc. They preach the 'balanced team' and proper team make-up. After you've played CoH for awhile, you realize that most of this is really beginner knowledge. It's not wrong, but it is really just a form of pick-up group idiot proofing. Pick-up groups don't have the skill and experience with each other to truly excel, so it's sometimes best to throw the one-size-fits all grouping tactics on to them so that everyone doesn't run around totally lost.

Over in the real grouping world, things are a little different. Any type of group, when well played and coordinated, can be successful. No, tanks don't need provoke. Blasters can be successful with melee powers. Yes, defenders can blast. And believe it or not, people actually do slot enhancements other than damage and accuracy. A big part of it is thinking about the other things ATs and power types can do besides what we usually associate with them.

This guide is about those rare teams that approach grouping not as an occasional distraction, but as something they do 100% of the time. These are groups that work together almost all of the time. Alone, each would be considered gimp, but together they form some of the most powerful teams in the game. Thus, I call them SuperTeams.

If you or your supergroup has a SuperTeam, post some of your stories here, we'd like to hear them.

The Supergroup vs. SuperTeams

There's one thing I've noticed about Paragon City. The vast majority of heroes are solo builds. That doesn't mean they aren't group players, but they are solo built heroes that just happen to group. I've met very few true group built characters. Most supergroups (the true organization of group characters) are made up of nothing more than solo builds that just happen to hang out together.

SuperTeams are different. They are made of players that play almost exclusively with each other. They probably have the same costumes/names, just like supergroups. But that's only the beginning.

Collaborative Builds

Solo built heroes of the world think they have to do everything themselves. Not only because of the "super hero-ness" of being able to do big damage, AND tank, AND heal, AND buff, AND control. And thus the tank complains because he can't do big damage when he could just get a scrapper friend. Or the blaster who is angry because enemies run away from his Blizzard when one controller is the easy solution. But it also because a lot of people honestly don't trust anyone else to take care of critical areas for them, especially in a pick-up team.

SuperTeams do exactly that. They defer, what many players consider to be, critical areas to their teammates. Slightly gimping themselves to create a stronger group overall. True group builds are built to group with one specific group. They aren't one-size fits all, ready to fit in to any random pick-up group that the universe spits out.

Buffing and the Rule of Leadership: In most SuperTeams, everyone takes leadership powers. Only new players take leadership powers solo, and then come to the boards to complain about how weak they are. They just don't understand two concepts. First, leadership is a group-based pool. Its effectiveness increases as you add more team members and greatly increases as you add more team members with the same leadership power. Everyone that says leadership is too weak and demands a increase, has to take a moment to think about how even small increases will affect an 8 defender team with shared leadership. Leadership works great, when you get your teammates to take it with you.

The second concept is the rate of damage over time. People are found of mentioning how they only get 1.5 damage or something from assault, and thus it is weak. But how much is that 1.5 over an entire fight? Over an entire mission? Over a few months? That 1.5 grows over time into lots of free damage that you would not have had otherwise. Now think about that rate over yourself and 7 other teammates? What if they ALL had assault as well? I'll take free damage, no matter how small, any day of the week. If you have room in your build, and can manage the near insignificant endurance cost, I don't see why you would not take leadership powers. If your 500 point attack is only boosted by 1, you can now one-shot a 501 HP enemy.

All this relates to buffs, and SuperTeams are always looking to be buffed as much as possible and as often as possible (on the flip-side SuperTeams are always looking for buffs but not heals, sorry empaths. SuperTeams just don't take damage all that much).

Say you were in a SuperTeam where a kinetic defender kept the team damaged buffed at all times. You'd probably be close to the damage cap and many people would say adding assault on top of this is a waste. But what's the missing part? What's missing is the fact that the team is near the cap because most heroes slot tons of damage enhancements. If you can get close to caps using mostly outside buffs, then it frees up enhancement slots for other powers, and/or it frees up slots for enhancements other than accuracy, damage, and endurance reduction. The reason this is very important should become clear later.


Single Powers to Rule them All: Most people hear my leadership nonsense, and the first question is quick to arise. "How can you possibly find room in builds for leadership powers?" The answer is the key component of collaborative builds. You build each hero to fill in the gaps of the others. Here are three big examples:

<ul type="square">[*]Travels: It should be obvious, but if you group with the same teammembers all the time, why does everyone need their own travel powers? One teammember with fly, personal force field, and recall friend can take care of the traveling for the entire team. Not to mention powers like group fly, inertia reduction, speed boost, siphon speed, etc. Leaving the taxi duties to a teammember frees up 1-2 power slots on most builds.

[*]Hasten?: In solo world, players tend to believe that 1 acc, 5 dam is now the "norm" and anything below that is "totally gimp." People could easily load up a few recharge enhancements, but that will take them away from that ideal set-up. So through their own actions they create the need for Hasten, first of the "must-have" powers. Superteams just throw accelerate metabolism and/or speed boost at that problem. Do you really need hasten if you're speed boosted 100% of the time?

[*]Stamina?: The same can be said for stamina. How many people do you know that actually seriously invests in endurance reduction enhancements? Probably, not many (that whole 1 acc, 5 dam mind-set again). So, again, through their own actions, people form this need to get stamina. Those same two powers, acc. meta and speed boost also work great in this area as well. Also key are recovery aura and ad. boost. How much space would you have in your build if you didn't have to touch the fitness pool at all?[/list]
In SuperTeams, one or two members can take "the hit" in power choices in order to make the entire team more efficient and effective. The key is early planning for group choices for the entire team.

Building to Theme, the true power of SuperTeams

Collaborative builds was the beginning, now it continues by working together on powers and enhancement choices. SuperTeams are the minority groups that take advantage of one of the key concepts in City of Heroes: With very few exceptions, everything in the game stacks. To illustrate this, let's have a discussion of teams built around specific enhancement types.

Endurance Reduction: This isn't really a team, but I just wanted to make a quick comment about end. reduction: Use it! Powerleveling is a factor of two things, increasing damage while reducing downtime. Everyone increases damage through enhancements, split teaming, underhunting and tons of other tactics. But hardly anyone gives a thought to reducing downtime. It doesn't matter if you can do big damage if you have to rest after every fight. Just one endurance SO in the big end powers can make a true difference. So seriously think about it... until your teammates get speed boost/transference/acc. meta/recovery aura/etc.

Damage: My damage SuperTeam would focus on damage-over-time (DOT). This means fire. A fire/fire tank, two fire/fire blasters (one melee bias, one ranged bias), one or two fire/kinetic controllers, and round it out with spines/claw scrappers and defenders kinetic or empathy (for recovery aura and adrenaline boost). Everyone takes assault/tactics. Everyone slots tons of damage in the area powers, even the controller (you won't have to hold for long). The blasters are right in there with the tank using their melee aura powers (don't be scared, it's called aggro management, let the tank do his work and pace your attacks). This team will live at the damage cap constantly, but that's ok. They're theme is doing tons of damage before they run out of end and/or the enemy can mount a true counter. In this case, it's better to be at the cap than close. Stick this group in trial zones or split team underhunting in hazard zones. Stacking damage is one of the more basic SuperTeams, but its controlled chaos and pure leveling speed can not be ignored.

End. Drain: Endurance draining in City of Heroes is the classic example of "bring-a-friend." It becomes SOO easy when you have a team working together to do it. The trick to end. drain is to focus your enhancements on the big draining powers to get the best effect. The best end drain powers are Short Circuit, Zapp, Thunderous Blast, and Power Sink. Next in line, but also worthy of heavy enhancement are Transfusion and Transference. My simple end drain team would be two blasters, one elec/elec and one elec/energy (for power boost and others). And two defenders, one kinetic/elec and one force field/elec. Maybe with an Ice Tank thrown in if you have to have one.

Slow: You knew it when that first group of Valzilok ambushed you in Galaxy City, slow is extremely powerful when it is stacked together. Yes, even in this post Caltrop-10% movement-fix world. Team includes Ice/Ice Tankers, Ice/Ice-Devices Blasters, Ice/Storm Controllers, Spine Scrappers, and Storm-Dark/Psychic Blast Defenders. Works in many ways like the damage group. Let everyone stick close together to take max effect of the aura/area powers. And please slot your slow enhancements! Protection? Chilling Embrace, Spine Burst, Quills, multiple Ice Patches, etc.... Perma 90% enemy slow is some strong damage mitagation. Form this group if you want to blow in like a december wind and destroy everything before it can mount a true counter or escape.

Knockback: An enemy can't hurt you while flying through the air! Team includes Assault-Energy/Energy Blasters, Storm-FF-Kinetic/Psychic-Energy Defenders, Gravity-Mind/Storm Controllers and if you have any melees Battleaxe-Stone-SS Tank (with Whirlwind). Make sure the controllers avoid any powers that physically hold an enemy (mind and illusion are ok), they just give a pesky resistance to knockback. Use knockback enhancements if you prefer, but remember your sniper powers and the effects of range on this team. This isn't the most efficient team (no holds/low area effect efficiency) or the easiest to work with. But if you like a challenge, nothing is more fun than a screen full of enemies flying all over the place!

Defense Reduction: Samurai/Ninja and Knight themed supergroups should be ashamed if defense reduction isn't a key part of their diet. The main members of this team are Broadsword/Katana Scrappers and Rad/Rad Defenders. Defense reduction works like accuracy, but with a few differences. It doesn't help your initial attack, you have to hit on your own to score the defense debuff. It is temporary. Each defense debuff attack does its own defense debuff, and they stack with your other attacks, and the attacks done by your teammates (up to a cap of course). In other words, accuracy enhancements help you personally, defense debuffs helps your entire team. You just need that first shot to start it off, then villans are kept in a crippling chain with a dangerously lowered defense. I'm sure you've heard the stories of the 8-man Rad/Rad defender teams and what they can do (even after the nerf). Be afraid! Also, think about the effect of just one d. reduction rad/rad defender thrown in with the Damage team.

To-Hit Debuff: Finally the one team that can trully say that the best defense is a good offense. To-Hit debuff works exactly like defense reduction. Score a strike, and it lowers their accuracy. This is the core domain of dark powers. Key components of the team are Dark/Dark Defenders and Dark Scrappers. Other notable debuff powers: Smoke, and Smoke Grenade (after a recent patch, Intimidate, Invoke panic, and Force bubble do not take to-hit debuff). This team of the night can and needs to unleash a constant offensive fury to keep their enemies near the debuff cap. Also, consider what happens if you combine the defense reduc. team with this team. Maybe a Ninja/Knight team with Dark Mages to help. Now you have one team with the ability to artificially bring tough enemies down a few levels, by combining both debuffs. An Earthquake controller would fit well with this dual team too.

Defense Buff and Resist Damage: Every once in awhile, someone asks how to form a team to experience all the 'content'. This is the exact team I suggest. A team totally built around defense. Invulnerability Tanks, Inv/SR Scrappers, Blasters with Cloaking Device, Tough, and Weave, Illusion/FF Controllers, and nicely enhanced Emp-FF/Dark defenders. Flashy? Not really. This doesn't have the flair of the damage or knockback teams, but it makes up for it in effectiveness. A defensive focused team can methodically grind through any mission. Task forces, trials, and archvillians are nothing. This would be the one team left standing during invasions while everyone else is getting taxied from the hospital. If you hate debt, hate death, and hate really working hard to avoid both... here you go.

Disorient: Yes, disorient is still buggy. But the extent people avoid disorient, boggles my mind. Here is a list of mag 3 disorient powers: Beanbag, Taser, Stun, Flashfire, Cosmic Burst, Cobra Strike, Eagles Claw, and Knockout Blow. All you have to do is chain two of those to perma-stun any boss. Then there are tons of mag 2 and mag 1 powers that can also come into play if your team works together. Notable team members include Energy Tankers, Assault/Dev Blasters, and Martial Art Scrappers (also useful are FF/Storm Defenders and Earth/Fire/Mind Controllers). Besides the tanker, no one really has to invest that much into the team, since most power groups only have one or two disorient powers to enhance. Just add a few more slots for accuracy and disorient and there you go. Keep bosses out of the fight, disorient entire groups of minions for damage mitigation. And my favorite, alpha strike troublesome enemies (like sorcerors and raider engineers for instance) to take their buffs completely out of the battle equation. Having trouble with enemies sleep, disorient, or holding you... then do it to them first!

Range: Range is arguably the most underrated Power-10 enhancement. A team built around range requires you to flip everything you know about team tactics on its head. To do things in a totally different way. You get the most bang from range by using it with power sets that have a large base range. So it's important to know that the longest range power sets in the game are Psychic Blast, Mind Control, and Assault Rifle. Ranged strategy usually has three steps. One, if defensive heavy melee heroes are present, their job is to hold aggro, disorient, knockdown, or do anything they can to delay the enemy from chasing the ranged heroes. Two, controllers/defenders use their 'location' powers to either lay it down in the middle of an enemy group or to place it in such a way that they have to run through it to get to you (location powers take range too). Even better if the controllers have enough range in their area holds to simply hold the group without getting hit. Third, the range fighters do their best to super jump/fly around to stay out of range, while strategically blasting the enemies. It's not as easy as it sounds, but it's a lot of fun when executed correctly. Think about the effects of range enhancements in powers with high base ranges. The recently fixed Tar Patch has a base range of 120!! It now slows enemies properly and recharges fast enough to lay down a second before the first is gone. The snipes Moonbeam and Psionic Lance start at a base of 175! Have you ever ran experiments on with range on Teleport Foe? Most people label range as useless since they only try to use it in a solo setting. Three blasters in a triangle formation, trading the aggro of a boss, and outranging him 100%, is going to win every night of the week. Think about ways the new AoE "fear" changes are a benefit to this team. Sit down with your team and think about innovative ways to use range.


Pure Teams:

Pure teams are SuperTeams that consist mostly of one AT. They are usually done in one of two ways. First is identical stacking, every teammember is completely identical to the others, down to the enhancements. As an example, I remember a team of blaster robots that said they were all from the same series of robot from a factory, so they were all identical. The second method is to try for team balance, starting with a one AT team, but choosing powers in a way that each member can fill a different role. Let one member take many defensive power pool powers and be the "tank." Others can focus on damage dealing, or travel powers, or buffs/heals from the medicine pool. It's an attempt to get a psuedo-balanced group while maintaining the benefits of everyone being the same AT.

Tankers: If the thought of an all-tanker team makes you cringe... then you have never played an offensive tanker. Including two or three fire tanks will do wonders for offense. Multiple Ice tankers can create their own slow debuff group. Stacked Chilling Embraces/Ice Patches is a nightmare for villians. Multiple Energy/SS tankers can keep entire trial zone sized groups of enemies stunned. An all-tanker team, even if totally offensively focused, will still have the benefits of higher tanker hit points. If you don't want to go full-out, a single kinetic defender will significantly help this team.

Scrappers: The same can be done for scrappers. Stack Invulnerability for a strong defensive team or Dark powers for an offensively defensive team. Multiple Spines scrappers create a higher damaging slow team than the tankers. Multiple claw/regens can run through hazard zones zerging anything in their path. The swords (broad/katana) create a strong defense debuff team. Or a martial arts team for perma-disorients. Again, you can't count out the extreme effect that a single kinetic defender will have on this team.

Defenders: Easily the most famous of the pure teams. All-defender supergroups exist on every server of the game. And for good reason, they are extremely powerful teams. Multiple kinetics are built for fast leveling, potentially outpacing even all-blaster teams. Radiation teams are the kings of debuffing, tough groups of purples are nothing to them. Any team that has more than two force fielders, simply will not die... ever. Dark defender teams can have impressive offensive while placing only second to force fielders in the "tough-to-kill" category. An Empathy team almost sounds redundant, but in later levels, stacking clear minds, fortitudes, and recovery auras, can all come in handy (ever seen a 100% Whirlwind taking no endurance because it's powered by multiple RAs? Fun, fun). A Storm team can go so many different directions: knockbacks, slow, debuffs, etc. All that before we even begin to talk about stacking the highest leadership bonuses for all the ATs.

Blasters: Yes, all-blaster teams do exist and they work just fine. Some make use of range. Some simply quickly demolish their foes with an awesome initial strike. Others stack bonuses for max-effect. Ice slow teams, Energy knockback teams, Assault range teams, Fire DoT teams, Elec End Drain teams... these are all examples. In the end, whether identical teams or a balanced blaster team, this team will always have the base-blaster advantage of being able to outdamage most other teams. In general, those heroes in all-blaster teams that I've watched and talked too are all experts at killing and killing fast... because they know what happens if they don't.

Controllers: The rarest of the pure teams, pure controller teams follow the exact progression as controllers themselves. After the slow start, you can't deny the pure power of this team once they reach the 30s. Once they cross that barrier, the team reaches that magical point where they not only have holds, defender powers, and strong leadership bonuses. But also a large army of pets completely at their disposal. I have never personally seen a pure-controller SuperTeam, but I'm in awe at the possibilities.

A simple idea for an early contoller team is to work a few members around confuse. A couple Mind controllers with an Illusion and a Ice Controller. With so many confusions going around, it greatly reduces the amount of total damage you need to do for the same experience.

Buffing: The Balance of Powers and Enhancements

The Defense group is my favorite example of balanced buffing. For a solo example: I have a energy tanker on Infinity with 'three' invulnerability powers total. All three only have one enhancement slot. The powers are Resist Physical Damage, Dull Pain, and Invincibility, the only one that matters. Invincibility gives you a defense boost for each enemy at melee range. So when the tank is in the middle of a huge trial zone group, he tends not to get hit at all. The outside buff provided by invincibility totally dwarfs the fact that he has hardly any defensive enhancement.

Going back to the defense group, if you are a tanker that is buffed 100% of the time with force fields, then you don't need to collect the tons of defense enhancements like most tanks. And it works both ways, a force fielder in a team where everyone has a decent amount of personal defense, does not have to six slot every bubble.

So that's the paradox, the defensive team has so many outside group defense powers and buffs that is frees them up to give heavy slotting to their offensive powers. And it works the same way for many other SuperTeams.

Beyond Communication: Experience

Communication is the key component of a good team, always. Communicating to plan tactics, talking about what went wrong, etc. Good leaders even know how to throw out casual bits to keep everyone interested, or to completely change the bad mood after a group wipe-out so that no one leaves in disgust.

Pick-up groups have to have communication. You don't know your team members' experience with the game, or experience with different power sets. So you have to literally tell them to wait for the controller holds before they unleash the Fire Rain or why the unyielding or invincibility tank needs lots of enemies around them. Most importantly, team members don't know each other. Good communication gives everyone a little more confidence in each other, making everyone more likely to stay calm and do their job as opposed to running for the door at the first yellow HP bar.

In SuperTeams, experience replaces communication. That's not to say that they don't talk, but they rarely talk about tactics/strategy. You'll rarely hear a superteam say, "Ok, snipe the boss first while the rad/rad defender debuffs the lieutenant." They don't say it because everyone already knows it. This blaster might usually start a battle by sniping the boss, so everyone automatically clicks on him to see what he is targeting. They have worked with the defender enough to know what the radiation anchors look like and as such they know how to avoid them. The moment the controllers begin the holds, the blasters are right behind with the area attacks. Ranged focused blasters are constantly 'glued' to Repel or Hurricane defenders. Confused and mezzed enemies are immediately identified and left alone.

These are all traits of teams that have such a high level of experience with each other, that once the battle begins they already know the next five things that will happen. Because they've done it thousands of times before.

Another aspect is trust. In SuperTeams, heroes fully know and expect their teammates to jump in and save their hide, constantly. There's no need to worry, once the tank hits red... BOOM! ... there goes the absorb pain. Automatic. If things are going bad for the scrapper, he knows to not run because a kinetics transfusion will be coming soon.

Members of pick-up teams spend so much time wondering if they can trust their teammates that it hurts efficiency and the group overall. I can speak from experience since I lead a lot of pick-up teams. Half my time is spent leading the group and contributing with battles. But in a newly formed pick-up team, almost an equal part of my attention is also spent watching everyone else. Noticing their fighting styles, offering tactics suggestions, checking the map to see if everyone is keeping up, keeping an eye out for leechers and people not pulling their weight, and sometimes even managing the team seek window and sending tells to other potential teammembers. Once I have a little more experience with the team, the middle of a task force for instance, I can stop worrying about most of that stuff and become a better contributor.

I know this is all fairly obvious, but it's one of the most crucial components of the SuperTeam. Lots of players have completely given up on pick-up teams after having a few bad experiences (I hope you give them another try). They already know the value of teaming with someone that knows your playstyle very well. Many times it's the difference between success and a group hospital trip.


Not interested in SuperTeams, you will be

Most people that work in groups always want to manage the weaknesses. The cliche phrase of this is "We need a healer!"

SuperTeams aren't about weaknesses, they are about the strengths. And making those strengths so powerful that the weaknesses just don't matter that much. Do you think the slow team or the to-hit debuff team cares about needing more defense heroes? Having enemies slowed by 90%, is defense. Six slotted attacks that all debuff accuracy, is defense.

That's the SuperTeam: picking one theme and focusing on that theme to such an extent, that little else matters.

You might not have a SuperTeam now, or want to form one, but think about this: Do you want to face a SuperTeam in battle?

Do you want to fight a team that can drain your endurance moments into the fight? Or a team that slows you so severly that you can't even escape? Or a team that you can't even get in range to fight? Or an entire team of mezzing, stunning, holding, enemies? Or a team that debuffs your accuracy so much that hitting them is near impossible?

You might not want to deal with this now. But I can guarantee that the people over on the City of Villians board have long since taken notice and begun preparing...

I posted about this too about two months ago. The thread got many of the same suggestions: Exp bonus, more missions, and complaints about running through red areas to reach lower level hazard zones gates (which dev thought this was a good idea anyway?).

I play tons of alts on Virtue, Protector, and Infinity, and I'm the king of hazard/trial zones. They key is to take an active role in adventuring in them. So many people take a quick peek into a zone, see no one is there and then leave a little more depressed.

If you want to have fun in hazard zones, you have to make it happen. The vast majority of heroes out there don't click 'team seek' even though they may be open to grouping. So how do you find out? Ask them.

My lvl 14-19 alts will log on in Faultline, set up the team window to find heroes of the right level and AT, then start sending tells to the soloers (after inviting the lucky people who are actually looking for teams). And it's not some crappy "Hey, wanna team?" tell. It's something like, "Hi, want to fight with a team in Faultline?" What, where, and how in a simple statement.

Sometimes you won't get a response, sometimes they are about to log off, or they are in a mission. But more often than not, they are flattered that you asked. It's a numbers game, a percentage of all the tells you send will accept. And before long I always have a 6-8 member team for hazard zone fun.

And it never fails, that a third of my newly formed group has to ask 'Where is Faultline again?' ::sigh::

My groups tend to stick to clocks in Faultline. They are the easiest enemy there. Why hunt a harder equal level enemy when they give the same experience. A 19 boss is a 19 boss.

Another reason I stick to clocks is for ease of navigation. A tip for all of you to afraid to actually explore Faultline. Superspeeders can get around just fine if they stick to the east or west walls. It's only the middle that gives you trouble.

Usually, we're the only group in the entire zone. Every hunt, all team members gain at least one level if not more.

Also, I tend to focus more on trial zones over hazard zones. Trial zones are meant for groups with 6-8 heroes and sometimes have multiple bosses in groups, thus the experience over time is a little better. Hazard zones are less challenging and meant for smaller teams. So for my money Sewer/Hollows &gt; Perez. Faultline &gt; Boomtown. Terra Volta &gt; Dark Astoria, etc.

The hazard/trial zones have given me so much fun. I've taken groups of level 2s through the sewers down to the south junction, through the underworld, and beyond to finally emerge a few hours later all past level 10.

I've had Faultline groups that initially stuggled, then worked out new tactics that allowed them to reach the 'south wall' (the holy grail of any Faultline group).

Not to mention the DA Cemetary runs. And the Terra Volta hero teams, fighting the good fight in the toughest areas around the zone, keeping the hordes of Freakshow/Lost/Sky Raiders at bay for all the respec teams. It's sad how many high level soloers never experienced any of that.

Of course, part of the reason I have so much fun in hazard/trial zones, is because I like to group. I like the challenge of forming and leading pick-up teams. I like having a different mix of powers to combine each time. I like the organized chaos of huge trial zone battles.

Honestly, a big part of the hazard/trial zone issue is the fact that the majority of heroes have a "I'd rather be soloing" approach to the game. No amount of hazard zone 'fixing' can do much about that.

Since we haven't had one of these threads in awhile:

You know you're in a pick-up group when...

you easily avoided the mobs on the way to the mission door. And while you wait, you notice your teammates life bars slowly draining usually accompanied by calls of "HELP!" and "wwwwwwwwwwssssssssssssssssdddddddddddd"

your force fielder starts each battle by switching on his personal force field, then saying "Ready!."

your blaster teammate dies alone somewhere on the other side of the mission then exclaims "You guys, suck" and quits.

one team member constantly expresses his desire to split the team up inside a near impossible 8-hero mission because "It'll go faster"

after 5 minutes of retreating, you realize that the defender forgot to switch off the anchor toggle power.

one team member says "Ok, I gotta go to work, be back in 4 hours." Then proceeds to sit somewhere AFK, and the leader does not kick them.

the tank totally ignores the battle raging around him to start his giddy game of "Find the next glowy"

each mission is followed by a 30-minute heated debate on proper tactics, as well as the useless pissing contest of how many high level alts they have and time spent in beta.

the leader invites some random hero too high for the team. The high hero then says "Wow, I'm way to l33t for you guys. Come follow me, I'll powerlevel you. Exemplar is teh weak"

you cautiously elect to prompt for teleports before you join. The the leader then screams at you because he can't port you, shortly before kicking you.

one team member draws way to much aggro causing the entire group to die. He then says (as his first words since joining the team), "and that's why I don't play in 8-man teams." He then quits.

you constantly have to remind your buffers to refill the shields, speed boosts, acc. metabolism, etc. Guess those handy little icons and your group dying around you wasn't notice enough.

the leader, a blaster, is the only one taking on the boss. After a few deaths, he asks the other blasters, scrapper, and tank why they keep focusing on the minions instead of helping him with the bosses. The blasters answer, "We don't want to draw any aggro." The scrapper says, "I don't care what it is, the closest to me, dies." The tank, "There was a boss?!?"

good tactics and power combinations are keeping everyone from taking any damage at all. Yet your healer constantly fires healing aura for no real reason and demands that everyone stay close.

your leader aggros a ton of villans, in mission, then runs back through your group, on the way to the door. Saying, "BRB I forgot to train"

the radiation hero throws a fit because she anchors the boss first everytime and the team continues to kill the anchor first.

you spend 30-minutes deciding what mission to do.

the blaster team leader tells the team to wait on the caltrops before they attack. After caltrops is fired, the scrappers instantly run past the caltrops into the approaching enemies.

the group leader assembles the team then makes someone random the leader saying "I don't like leading. You do it."

a teammember receives an unexpected speed boost and rockets to the other side of the mission and certain death.

your team has finally assembled and the controller says, "Wait! First we dance!!"

you, a dark/dark defender is invited to an established team and greeted by the calls of "A healer!! YAY!! Time to work off this debt. This mission is soooo going down. Sixth time's the charm!"

a scrapper is teamed with three kinetic controllers and says "Man, we need a healer."

you're leading a team and people say "We need (archetype X)" as if you can snap your fingers and magically produce that hero on demand.

while in Faultline, the superspeeder spams "Port me out now!!" when no one has recall friend.

a hero slots straight damage enhancements and has sprint on 100% of the time, then demands the group stop every 20 seconds for his end.

you find yourself the highest member of a Positron TF team made up of lvl 12 blasters and a storm defender.

the provoking tank grabs the aggro from a hazard zone group and his teammates proceed to attack a totally different group.

a new arrival from another zone asks "Where are you guys?" after you told him three times. He then quits in frustration.

you just killed the first batch of enemies in a mission, and the controller says, "Crap, BRB, gotta sell"

you have a total group wipeout except for the defender who later says "Sorry, I went AFK, what I miss?"

you join your new group and greet everyone and the group leader says, "Mission in King's, get down here now, heal-bot!"

you ask your new team what they are doing and they answer, "Working on the debt badge!"

you join a team in Skyway who has spent the last hour looking for Babbage.

you join a team fighting in the Rularuu invasion and the leader explains how they work in shifts. Four fight while the other four regroup at the hospital.

the tank joins the group and explains how he needs to stay close to hold aggro, meanwhile the earth controller constantly centers the Earthquake/Repulsion Field/Repulsion Bomb on the tanker "to protect him."

you confront your scrapper for continually breaking sleep mezzes and he reveals that he thought they were meditating to power up.

seven heroes in the group die in a mission near the hospital. The empath then sits a boombox in the middle of the corpses while saying, "Stay put, rezz will be up soon."

the tank gets angry at the group and exclaims, "Stop shooting the boss, he's MY enemy!!!"

your team just finished a tough lvl 30 mission and the one team member still inside asks, "How'd you guys get out so fast?"

half your team is made up of high school kids home sick from school.

your empath auto-follows the tank, but does nothing. When the leader asks why, she says, "I only heal. I'm reading a book until you guys need me."

you are fighting a massive crowd of 5th Column and your teammate has a bind that says "Don't kill the Nacht Fist! He's the anchor!"

the leader of a scrapper heavy team invites a kinetic defender named "Repel Bunny."

you invite a force field defender and he says, "Hi, thanks for the invite. My fee is one SO per hour."

you join a Positron TF group and the leader says, "Ok, guys, get to it. I don't have a travel power so I'll hang here with Positron."

your teammember vicously demands full participation for each aura power. "HUG!!! HUG NOW DAMMIT!!"

after taking a peak at the enemy levels inside the team mission, you sneak into a corner and log off.

three people in your Boomtown team gained a new level. Then all three proceed to go see Ms. Liberty to train.

you are invited to a respec team that contains six different levels.

bossy teammates keep yelling at the tanker to refill his radiation shield in the respec mission, totally oblivious to the fact that his HP bar isn't going down at all.

after finishing the respec task force, one of your team members screams, "NO!!!! I took the range SO by mistake!!!!!!"

one of your teammates says to the group, "Wait here, I'll scout. Port me when I die."

you finally find a tank to join the group and he says "Don't SK, it's better exp for me."

yours and another team hits a hazard zone group at roughly the same time. Your leader then spends the next 20 minutes traveling from zone to zone, broadcasting the names of the other team and labeling them kill stealers.

your teammate just got to an odd level while fighting with you deep inside the sewer network. He turns to you and says, "Sweet, just got level. See you topside," before running headfirst into the nearest group of purple Lost.

-------

Ah! The joys of pick-ups. Feel free to add more.

Valdis, I posted a guide to the new team seek window a few days ago, and I too mentioned my displeasure at /findmember going error.

Luckily, a helpful fellow hero quickly jumped in to tell me that /search is the new command.