DarknessReigns

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Aye. I just did Sister Psyche tf a couple days ago where I was leader, and had to give a kind of Cliff Notes version of what was going on because a member of the team was interested in the story that only I could see (and hadn't started reading till he asked. ) Some sort of option for teammates to view that kind of stuff would be great. TY

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Brilliant! Thumbs up.

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The basic issue is this. 1-4 players can take on just about any group of mobs up to 4 levels above their own. These become absolutely trivial with more people then that if you have good players. Raise the level even one more and that group of mobs is now *easier* to solo then it is to attack as a team. In either the solo or team situation the rewards are not worth the time and effort involved.

This leaves anyone who wants to be part of a well played team of more then a few players completely out in the cold except for a small handful of missions where it actually takes a coordinated strategy and effort. But these types of missions and TF’s are very few in number. There are probably fewer then 10 in the whole game.

Without more challenging mobs that fall below the +5 level limit there is almost zero real team content in this game. This has to be a major concern for the devs because what give an MMO longevity and long term profitability is that people keep playing it because of the friends they have made in team situations. The presence of these friends keeps them playing the game long after the game is outdated.

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Maybe I'm missing your point. How does making only the bosses insanely hard help rather than hurt this scenario?

It sounds like a flawed design/implementation to me. Perhaps allowing the mission holder to sidekick multiple heroes to level-1 regardless of the difference in their levels would be a better implementation.

Either way, punishing the solo'ers because the system is flawed for large teams is not the correct answer.

Tee hee. That would be perfect.

That's one of the things I really don't understand about this whole mess. They gave us the difficulty slider AND buffed the bosses. Huh? Oh no, don't tell me (like I'm gonna touch it...) the slider only increases the quantity and not the quality of the mobs???

All I ask is that the game be playable again for we casual players. If it's too easy for you (not *you* personally... I'm trying to be nice) good for you, crank that slider up and let the rest of us wallow in our suckiness.

But why no bosses? We need the bosses in the end missions of the arcs, otherwise the fiction is totally broken. They just don't need to be the uber-one-hit monsters they are now, unless you choose them to be with the slider of course.

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Soloed 3 bosses -- 1 orange, 1 red, and 1 Elite red, and though I had to down some insps for them, I came through fine each time. So, in my opinion (and I'm assuming the rollback has already taken place), the bosses are fine for solo play just as they are.

So, my opinion is that if you want to keep bosses as they are in hard-boiled mode and leave the "new boss style" for the ramped-up levels, that's fine by me.

NewScrapper

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And fortunately for us, EVERBODY plays scrappers.

Umm... no, the 20K in debt my defender racked up on Saturday says otherwise. I can't kill orange bosses solo anymore while it was a pretty good fight before Issue 3 arrived. And now I'm at a level where almost all my missions have an orange boss - net effect, I'm screwed.

States, why won't you tell us when the boss rollback is going to happen? There's really no sense in my playing anymore, but sadly I've still got a month to go on my sub.

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Sorry... the "I have a life" card doesn't cut it. I have a life, and I've had the time to do the long, group-oriented stuff, too.

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"Well la-di-da". Good for you. But please realize that EVERYONE is not YOU.

Regardless of what you may think, everyone may not have the time - esp when you consider that some AT's are not considered "worthy" enough to team with. "RU empathy?" gets real old, real quick. Sometimes I can't even get a simple 2-person team together to do one of those stoopid "click 2 blinkys at once" missions.

The way I see it is if I have to waste a quarter of my available play time JUST to get a team together, what's the point of playing?

Respecs should cost influence only. I mean a trial to determine if I can ungimp my toon? Respecs are generally for gimped toons, and you want them to pass a trial to be able to ungimp? Where's the logic in that???

That's like the bank asking you to prove you don't need that loan before they will give it to you.

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This Boss thing is seriously becoming a major pain.
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Please, do the roll back and continue your testing on the slider or whatever you guys are testing, and let the game become enjoyable again for the ones that have chosen to solo.

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Hear hear!!! Hey States, come out of hiding and tell us why the boss chgs haven't been rolled back yet and when I can play again.

Auaaagh 2-hit again by the unseen orange boss with a ranged attack. When will this end?

[quoteEven though I mainly solo I have no problem with some content being group only.

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We have that already, they're called Task Forces.

Sounds pretty good, thanks for listening!

But States, I have a question about the team XP bonus. It won't be a simple XP bonus just for being in a team, but the bonus will grow higher based on the size of the team?

That would encourage full 8-man teams in order to get everyone the highest possible XP bonus. This would mean the odd builds, read: not cookie-cutter, would be asked to team more just to get the higher XP bonus.

For example, my Defender would get kicked less when she gets invited to team and tells them she's a Dark, not an Empathy, Defender. That got real old, real fast and frankly is one of the reasons soloing is so important to me.

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And in response to the above person, I'll be renewing my subscription this weekend (it expires) and be playing with other people in game on the various team missions (RSKED to a Sister Psyche II TF, then Numina, then a Sewer Trial) as well as running an in game rp event.


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Well take one of the Boss-able AT's with you then because the overwhelming number of bosses will tear you a new one.

Hmm... maybe soloing IS the answer. You just run the same mission over and over until the disparity in levels between you and the boss(es - hey there's only supposed to be 1.5 per hero... supposedly) is more managable. Wouldn't that be ironic... and boring as all get out?

What I really don't understand is why the change if we now have the slider. Hey if you want it more challenging, just crank that sucker up and go on your way. But then the slider would need to affect the level of the mobs instead of the quantity of the mobs.

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Quick update:

I've been discussing things with various team members and I've got an "official" meeting today to kick around some ideas about this issue. With luck, I'll post later today - otherwise early next week.

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That's cool, I was going to be playing with your competitor's product until you decide to make this game playable for me again anyway.

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I have an ele/eng blaster, and with a couple of snipes I can totally drain a boss of endurance, so all he can do is stand there. Just have to make sure I have a couple def buffs before I start the fight.

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So what you're saying is you, along with the majority of us, can't solo anymore either?

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The mission spawned 10 no-named bosses. Ten. For a 3 character team. No, I wasn't counting Tanks that rezzed twice. What happened? Debt-Fest '05.

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Yes, yes... exactly what happened to me and a friend the other night. We got 7 bosses on a two-person mission and they waxed us completely, we gave up and never finished it.

Before I3 it would have been a battle but one we could handle. Now.., well lets just say I'm afraid to run any missions in case there's a mini AV (aka a boss) present.

States... soon please???

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A LOT of people in the 30+ game were getting BORED. The mission difficulty slider AND the Boss/AV and Monster changes have reveresed that trend for a number of people.

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Dude, don't speak for me. If I wanted to get 2-hit by bosses, I would have set my difficulty slider higher.

I decided to play a squishly because it was fun and was viable and while I didn't always not die to a boss, at least I had a chance. I'm sick of the grind tho and I'm NOT going to shelve the toon I WORKED up to 31 for months (hey I don't PL) just because the devs broke the game for that AT.

Instead I plan to see what Statesman's "idea" is and if it is unsatisfactory, I'll let em know how I feel about it with my wallet rather than switch to an un-broken AT.

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Raph?

Ingot Head

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Aiiiiiieeeee!!!

--[On learning patience - Boot to the head] "Yeah.. patience.. how long is that going to take?!"

"Time has no meaning. To a true student, a year is as a day. Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ti Kwan Leep. Approach me that you might see."

Well do it soon please, this is a show-stopper for me.