GuyPerfect

So we can finally introduce the never-before-seen Sombrero server now, right?

You're lucky to have me here, Devs! As one who looks for the best in the game in every bit of content I play, I hereby provide you with a simple guide for revising older content to make it good instead!
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How to Redo an Old Task Force

Rule #1: No Longer Than 90 Minutes

While I personally have the time to finish, let's say, Dr. Quarterfield during the days that Daylight Savings is in effect, I'm going to venture to suggest that most people prefer to be able to complete Task Forces in addition to their ordinary lives, rather than in place of them. I can't count the number of times I've asked someone, "Hey, want to run this Task Force with me?" and they respond "Sorry, I've got a few other things I want to take care of before I retire."

90 minutes is a pretty good number for that. It's not too long that people have to devote their entire weekend to it, but it's also not so short that it's pointless to participate in. Skilled players will nail it down in less than an hour, of course, but your average, capable team should never have to take more than 90 minutes to complete a Task Force.


Rule #2: Go Easy On The Defeat-Alls

Nothing says "we don't know how to extend activity on your end, so we're just going to pull something out of our uninspired keesters" quite like six or seven identical, consecutive defeat-alls. The older content--Task Forces in particular--are veritably chock full of these, and it not only isn't cute, it's downright irritating. That's right: your game, which you put tons of effort into and that people otherwise play to have fun, is downright irritating when it comes to these nonsensical strings of defeat-alls.

Don't get me wrong, though: I appreciate a good defeat-all now and then. Never on super-huge or outdoor maps, though, that's just a no-no. When used in moderation, they truly do add spice to an otherwise objective-driven Task Force, and give all members of the team something to do for a few minutes that contrasts with the usual boss and glowy hunts.

An example of how to not do it, since we're talking about it, is Citadel Task Force. "Go clear out that warehouse. Oh, didn't find anything? Then go clear out another. Still nothing? Man, better clear out one more just to be sure."


Rule #3: Arch-Villains Aren't Climactic Anymore

Back when we had to use these things called Single-Origin Enhancements, the occasional appearance of some purple-conning enemy called an Arch-villain was a big deal, and full teams of 8 weren't entirely certain they'd be able to topple them. Frankly, they used to be difficult and scary! But now they go down in like 20 seconds, and Task Forces made since then (not even Statesman/Recluse) have you fighting multiple Arch-villains simultaneously, so it can definitely be shown that the perception of what makes a climactic battle has changed over the years.

When it comes to the older Task Forces, putting just one such purple-conning enemy at the end of a string of unremarkable missions leaves players with essentially no feeling of achievement. There have actually been times when my team and I--get this--accidentally defeated the Arch-villain while mopping up the ordinary mobs in the room. Yeah, that's not climactic at all.

Take a look at Romulus: you fight him once in one mission and it's nothing. Then you fight him again in the next mission when he has a few more powers, but it's epic because he's backed up by his troops and the Nictus, and transfers the Essences into himself to resurrect three times during the final battle. Now THAT'S how you end a Task Force. And it doesn't stop there. Stuffing Recluse's inner circle into a power machine, then making yourself more powerful to take on the bags-of-HP that is Reichsman? Epic. Defeating the freaking Hamidon so you can steal its power and repel the Rikti invasion beneath their fallen ship and close their portal to their homeworld? Epic.

Beating up a bunch of Freakshow, then one more Freakshow that happens to con purple, then suddenly receiving Reward Merits? Not so epic. There needs to be more to it. Even if it is just an Arch-villain, make him really big or something, like Bat'zul. That battle was epic even though it wasn't any different mechanically from any other.


Rule #4: Give The Player Some Kind Of Tangible Reward

Player A: "Hey, check out this cool badge I got for defeating Clamor."
Player B: "Oh yeah? Look at this awesome coral-related temp power I got for defeating the Eye of the Leviathan."
Player A: "OMG!!!"

Task Forces where you actually get to take something away from them are Task Forces++ in my book. They give me motivation to keep running them even after I get the badge, and I'm never one to run things for the Merits (I had over 1,200 the other day before I realized how many I had and cashed them in).

But whether it be a Coral power, or a Synthetic Hamidon Enhancement, or Power of Recluse's Cronies or whatever, being able to look at something useful and saying "I got this for doing that Task Force" makes it waaaaaaaaay better.


Rule #5: For The Love Of All Things Good And Holy Stop Putting Missions In Thorn Isle

I think this one speaks for itself. There's little enough reason to go to Nerva Archipelago in the first place; you don't need to keep forcing people to avoid it like the plague.

This, which I will hereby refer to as the "Thorn Isle Rule," applies to practically any location that isn't specifically the endpoint of some epic quest. A good example of this kind of location is Lanaruu the Mad's Storm Palace. A bad example of this is Thorn Isle, where players are often sent because the story designers needed some Circle of Thornsy place and there aren't any others.

Anywhere that makes the player take a long hike all the way across the map, and even just for simple little missions, is bad bad bad bad BAD. Stop doing it. Don't do it again when you revise the older Task Forces. I'm talking about places like Fort Darwin, the northern region of Boomtown, The FAB, Tempest Quay, etc. Just... don't put mission doors there unless that's where the epic battle happens.
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So follow these few simple rules and the older Task Forces will become awesome new Task Forces just like that!

The exact method the aforementioned person employed to convince me to visit Virtue was by paying for the round-trip ticket. Didn't cost me a dime. (-:

Major props, Virtue peeps! Five attempted Master runs, five successful Master runs. I think this has been the most successful week ever as far as my Most Recent list is concerned. (-:

I've got all my characters over on Triumph, which the perpetual green dot on the server selection screen indicates is likely the lowest-population server of all of them. I started up a badge character there and got most of them, save for the zero-defeat flavored Master badges. Every time I tried to get a Master run together over there, it wound up as a pick-up group and someone somewhere didn't pay attention and lost. I was in danger of being awarded the Master of 1 Defeat in Statesman's Task Force badge!

And then someone (a Titan Sentinel fan) convinced me to visit Virtue to grab those, so I did.

A few global channels and acquaintances later, I was able to get the ball rolling on those badges. We had a picture-perfect Master of Statesman run on Saturday, then tonight I had the opportunity to ask around for Master of Imperious. The team was crazy stacked with itself and we cleared it in no time with a success. Half of us decided to stick around for Master of Lord Recluse, and it was another by-the-books victory. (No permadom; rushed in the manly way with damage and debuffs, and aggro was held by a Fire Brute of all things)

Major props to those who ran with me tonight. I've never before had the pleasure of being teamed up with so much utter awesomeness in such a short time frame: it got me two Master badges back-to-back with less than a 2 hour turnaround.

I'll definitely be sticking around here for a little while. Not forever, but a little while. (-:

The difference between watching the market and writing down values, and having a program write down values for every person using the market...

...is roughly the same difference as grinding through missions to get to level 50, and having a bot control your character so you can get to 50 while you sleep.

Regardless of the technical feasibility, I'm opposed to this idea from an ethical standpoint.

Having a detailed market history complete with past transactions and the prices that things are posted for directly undermines the system as it has been implemented in the game, and consequently gives an unfair advantage to those in-the-know over those who are just playing the game the way it was provided to them.

To anyone who would set up a centralized market database: don't. Reading character builds or reminding the user to cast buffs is one thing, but when it comes to side-stepping an information boundary that the devs put in place for a reason, you're treading their side of the privacy pool.

They don't share your private information with others, so don't go sharing theirs.

What I like are the Hamidon Enhancements that fell above level 50. I heard there's a Super Group somewhere that has an un-slottable level 54 HO in their base, but that might just be an urban legend.

D-:<

Well, there's always next week. The Random Number God has withdrawn his favor from Vanden with a few really low rolls on Soul Storm, so he's gonna have to bring some Break Frees next time. (-:

I believe the 5th Column suffer from a similar situation as the Cimeroran Traitors, where if you pack too many of them on the map at a time, the server's internal processing throttle kicks in and causes powers to be cast outside of their real-time schedule. The game client has no knowledge of what's going on and cannot respond accordingly.

Playing on the Apex and Tin Mage Task Forces with some routine successful players on my server, I've never had any problems with the level 54 enemies. Yeah, they hit harder and take longer to kill, but everyone on the team was learned and accomplished and taking down two Goliath War Walkers, and then Neuron before Bobcat, all without anyone being defeated, well, it wasn't anything too difficult for us.

I've heard stories, however, of people attempting those Task Forces and dying left and right; often times giving up and abandoning the effort altogether. What for me and the people I play with wasn't too big a challenge sent other people packing with no hopes of ever returning. Combine this with news of people attempting the Behavioral Adjustment Facility trial on the Going Rogue beta server, and you hear the same remarks: level 54s are handing people's heads to them.

The reason so many people are having difficulties with these events (while the people I play with and I didn't have any major troubles with them) is because the game has been too easy for too long. Once the Invention system came into the picture, people became much more powerful than Single-Origin Enhancements let them be, and now we've got the Level Shift in the works. The game continued to grow easier and characters stronger, and there was no content geared for more powerful characters; the challenge plateaued and eventually started to decline.

And now that there's more challenge at long last, people are having major issues with it because they're not prepared for it. They've built their characters to perform well in level 50 content and their builds don't work so well in level 54 content. This isn't a failure of any kind, but it's a strong eye-opener that we need to make sure we plan in advance and prepare for the more challenging content that will be coming our way from now on.
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Things you can do to prepare for future content:


Slot for Accuracy

Higher level enemies aren't just more powerful. Your powers are actually less effective against them. If you're fighting an enemy 1 level above you, your powers are only 90% as effective as they would be if the enemy was the same level. Fighting a level 54 enemy even with a Level Shift, your powers are only 65% their full effectiveness. This applies to everything, including debuffs and damage and whatever else. If your power deals 100 damage to a level 51 enemy (and you have a Level Shift), it will only deal 65 damage to a level 54 enemy.

This mechanic, often referred to as the Purple Patch, manifests itself in a rather frustrating way in regards to Accuracy. Taking Accuracy and ToHit into account when calculating your final hit chance against a target may work just dandy at level 50, but if you're not keen on landing hits, you're going to be missing a LOT against level 54s. And when your power misses, it doesn't matter what the Purple Patch says: hits that don't land are 0% effective.

So slot for Accuracy before anything else. Before damage, before Endurance reduction, before +Defense set bonuses. I like to go way overboard and get 1.9X Accuracy on all my powers, but that's just me. One thing I can say, however, is that during the level 54 content, it's more a matter of taking down more powerful foes than it is missing all the time like you're level 12 all over again.


Acknowledge Archetype Strengths and Weaknesses

With stronger enemies coming our way and our powers becoming less effective as a direct result of the level difference, it's important to acknowledge the team dynamics and various roles filled by the different Archetypes. Defense buffs from set bonuses have gone a long way to make all characters quite survivable in level 50 content, but against groups of level 54s, you need to be careful, because your Scrapper might not be able to take the same kind of aggro it used to and live to tell about it.

While the enemies are certainly tough, Tankers and Brutes are fortunately still tough as well. The higher level enemies stand more of a chance against them, but they still take plenty of hits before going down, and will support from other teammates, they'll be able to hold aggro just as well as they always have. Know who can hold aggro, know who can buff/debuff/heal, know who can control the enemy, and know who can deal out damage. There is no Archetype that is only good for one thing, so be aware of what each Archetype is capable of.

Likewise, know what archetypes can't do certain things, and make sure those roles are accounted for. Some archetypes can't take many hits. Some archetypes can't hold aggro (I'm looking at you, Placate). Some archetypes don't do a lot of damage.


Know What You're Up Against

Most of the level 50 game just lets you run in and start bashing heads, but the newer content requires you to keep on your toes, and the Incarnate Trials specifically have been stated as requiring people to keep alert and know what to do. Even adjusting for the level difference and the team make-up, understanding of the objectives is very important for this content to be completed successfully.

Don't hesitate to ask questions in your global channels, to seek help on these forums, or to visit Paragon Wiki for details on how content is set up and what the objectives are. Knowledge is the greatest weapon, they say, and if a group of players charges in without knowing what to do, they may find themselves unable to pull it off.
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Interesting times are upon us, and it's a turning point for gameplay for a lot of us. What has worked in the past all the way back to Issue 9 is being turned on its ear, and we as a whole need to make adjustments to ensure we can participate in future content and have fun doing it.

Hopefully these pointers will be helpful in preparing for this future content.

No...

(To the person who's about to suggest Triumph Watch 2.0, you know you're wrong!)

One can hope.

I'm not sure what to think about Ninjitsu ever going to non-Stalker archetypes, since the function of the Stalker secondary--although violated since CoV day 1--is fine-tuned for the behavior of that one archetype.

Stalkers are meant to be the melee equivalent of Blasters: higher damage per attack than anyone else. In order for this to be pulled off successfully, the Stalker needs to be able to get in close without being blown away at a distance (hence Hide), and must be able to sustain a fair amount of attacks to get the job done (hence the defensive powers).

I suspect Ninjitsu was the first Stalker secondary created, because it's more geared to being mitigative rather than defensive. It's got some Defense toggles, a self heal and a crapmode power, but it also has something not characteristic of traditional defensive secondaries: AoE control.

From a mitigative standpoint, Ninjitsu is awesome because it's not only dodgy to begin with, but entire groups of enemies can be slowed down, placated or blinded/confused. The other three melee archetypes are more in-the-fray: they don't rely on stealth or mitigation, but more on sheer durability so they can go from group to group without employing any real level of field tactics.

Stalkers are denied damage auras. Ever wonder why that is? It's part of the Stalker design. Even Energy Aura gives Stalkers a PBAoE repel toggle. If any Stalker can successfully use that in combat, I'll buy a hat so I can take it off. Point is, though, the power was selected for its mitigative properties as a replacement for the auto smashing/lethal resist power.

I suspect Dark Armor came next, because the set is largely mitigative to begin with, albeit in an entity-centric way. Between the fear, stealth and stun, it fits right at home in the Stalker arsenal. For this reason, I can see Ninjitsu maybe going to Scrapper, but not Tanker or Brute.

Besides, I still have to laugh at the thought of Tanker--the archetype that's specifically designed to hold aggro--gaining access to an AoE placate.

At this point, I'm guessing the Stalker designer took a step back and said "Hey, porting that defensive set was easy. Let's do it for some others like Super Reflexes and Regeneration," and the rest was history: Stalkers received strictly defensive secondary powersets rather than the mitigative ones that they should have gotten.

We whooped Lanaruu and the whole thing took under ten minutes.

It marked the end of an era of tooth-pulling. What's not to be excited about?

Though of greater significance, as the first post will indicate, Triumph minded their own business and left us alone. It's a robonukkah miracle!

Let's see, I've got Shivans and Daggers to get...