Overboard

Relentless Session 25-26
Ran some arc missions against +2's. Uneventful, except for wiping on an escort/defeat all mission when the team accidentally split. When actually paying attention, fights are only a few seconds. Team is mostly L33.

Relentless Session 23-24
Our Stone brute has hung it up and moved onto greener games. We wish him the best of luck and hope that he's able to find a good reason to come back. We subbed in a pickup dominator the first night. I think he had quite a bit of fun. Second night we added an SG member with an SS/Energy brute that was near level.

First night, we ran two badge missions. Then ran papers to open up the Talos mayhem, and ran the mayhem itself. We crushed the mayhem and did all the sides. Second night, we ran the Crimson Revenant arcs which includes Mynx and Back Alley Brawler. Two members went down in the Mynx ambush, but we combat rezzed and kept going. Back Alley Brawler was a pushover, and he seriously needs better dialogue in the cutscene. We cleared Liberty Island of Longbow taking most of us to L32.

Relentless Session 21-22
Respec TF. Team is L29 against L32 mobs/vines. We blew out the first mission with the Elite Bosses. Rolled through the second mission to the AV room. I think only 3 of us had ever seen the map before. We made a loop around room, clearing the mobs. Then tackled the vines and got down to about 10 left up near the AV and he clobbered us. Once the five of us were familiar with the room layout things went a little better. We could reliably get down to about 10 vines but slowing down near the AV for buff and blocking LoS would allow them start springing back up. Basically, it turned into a game of Whack-a-Mole. We decided to call it a night with the intent to stock up on a couple lucks and give it another shot on Tuesday night.

The patch notes about TF's released Tuesday morning were a bit disconcerting. Especially considering that the means to deal with the FPS bug was to log out after each mission. In light of the news, one guy logged in early to see if we were still in the TF. Unfortunately, he was not set for Relentless and the mission spawned L30. We waited outside the mission for about 30-40 minutes for it to reset. It didnt. Worried that someone would DC, we gave up waiting. Against L30s, the room took about 5 minutes. We cleared the vines before any respawned and then killed the AV before the ambush even unmezzed. It was not very satisfying.

Finishing in 5 minutes against +1 was really a let down. I'm quite disappointed that we didnt get to do it at +3 as we intended. I'm annoyed that this TF bug has come up now after we've been fighting with the fps bug for months.

Relentless Session 20
Finished the Temple of Waters SF. One map capped Family at L30 and then later dinging L29 made it an easy go. Despite knowing the AV would ambush in the second to last map, we still managed to be split up when it happened. We fought as two groups of four, something Teamspeak wouldve resolved quickly. We managed, but it wasnt pretty.

The final mission was new to me and some of the others. Cool artwork, cool AVs. We had intended to clear the mobs from the room before engaging the AV, but by mistake or accident aggro'd and killed him with about 1/3 of the room still left. While trying to manage the 2nd AV, people were getting tossed around the room and the mobs were aggro'd. Most of the team went down and we pulled out. Regrouping and utilizing one guy's knowledge of the room we beat down the AV and finished the SF.

Relentless Session 19
Ran some the SF missions with the team mostly at L28 against some L31 Legacy, L32 Arachnos and L32-33 Longbow. We ran into the Arachnos base map spawn location 'problems', in that there was a spawn on top of the mission door. Given various loading times, it was difficult to deal with it but we managed. The map also spawned ambushes directly on top of the team twice, but we handled those easily enough. The Longbow mission seemed to go on forever. L32s we could usually zerg depending on location, but the L33s required pulling and positioning tactics.

Relentless Session 18
Started the SF at L27, with the Stoner at L26. First group was L33 Longbow. Personally, I was looking forward to it but some of the team was not amused. We slogged it out, but the guys weren't really having much fun. The +6's, while doable were just tedious. The +5's on the other hand were a better mix of requiring some skill in reasonable amount of time. To add insult to injury, the npc that youre supposed to lead to a clickly died and the mission refused to fail or complete. So we had to petition, and called it a night.

Relentless Session 17
Did a few mission leading upto and including the Soul Taker badge and IP Mayhem. Next session we'll start the Temple of Waters SF at L27 and hope for L32's. It'll be nice to back on an SF as it makes dealing with the FPS bug somewhat bearable. Having your FPS drop from 50+ to 4-10 after every mission is getting old. Everyone exits to desktop, reloads, and then gets reinvited.

Relentless Session 16
Ran some regular missions to L26.5. The guy grabbing missions was a level ahead so we got some +3's for a bit till we caught up. The Stoner was back and an sgmate filled the Thermals spot with another brute, so we had a team of eight. We were in good form, and the pace was very fast. No surprise, but Fury and Dom have that effect it seems.

We nearly wiped in one of the vertical Oranbega rooms. Half the team went through a porter directly into a spawn. I was debuffed before I could drop an aoe mezz, so when it did it missed most of them. We were down by the time the remainder of the team found us. Just bad execution, Teamspeak might've improved the reaction time but we havent really used it apart from the Sewer Trial. Really feels like the villain ATs are less forgiving of mistakes, which in a way makes it more interesting.

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Cool Read! This sure sounds like fun guys.

Can I suggest after running this, if you guys might try doing an all kheld team on invincible? (any mix of dual, tri, and all humna khelds). On invnice I can guarantee ya you will be challenged.

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Glad you enjoyed, and yeh its been great fun. We considered a kheldian in place of blaster, mainly for special mobs, but ultimately decided the knockback would be too problematic. Don't think I've seen a suggestion for an -all- Kheldian team before. I prefer mixed teams, but I suppose if you consider both PB and War along with all their forms ... hmm ...

Relentless Session 15
We finished the Silver Mantis TF without the Thermal and the Stoner. Was mostly +3's until we dinged L25, but no bosses on a team of six. We were rolling pretty good, but wiped twice on the final map. First, in an uncoordinated attempt to fly up to the top of the main platform. Stupid Jump Pack, lol. Second time was when the AV aggro'd with still 6-8 turrets left. This was my first time doing the map, so I'm not familiar with the exact mechanics. We were under the impression that the AV appeared after the last turret was dropped so we were caught off guard. I can't help but think that the Hero team would have recovered, but honestly there isn't much heroside to compare to this. I guess the closest would be the Katie Hannon TF, but it took a +4 or +5 group to wipe us.

Another interesting comparison, after the same number of sessions the villain team is only about a level behind the hero team. Six of us made L25.5ish last night.

Relentless Session 14
Tux summed it up with Strikebreaker and Silver Mantis. We were a little disappointed that the SF didnt spawn higher level mobs, +4 to +5 would've been better. Ambushes really kept the pace going, moreso than other aspect of the game with the possible exception of Croatoa's Katie Hannon TF, and one or two missions there.

The teams been plagued by the 'sudden drop in framerate' bug for weeks now. Typically, I drop from 50 to 5 fps after every mission. Exiting to desktop fixes it until the next mission, but the result is that it messes up the Herostats rate calculations for the session. I do have the rate for the last mission, about 41,500 xp/hr, but I'm not sure what that is in 'bubs' at L23-24.

Relentless Session 13
Completed the Steel Canyon mayhem, which was very successful but for one part where while fighting a key mob we aggrod street mobs on top of a Longbow ambush.

Ran and completed the Carpe Diem arc for the Seaweed badge. We wiped once in the final mission on the scaffolding, as a result of getting split up. An interesting side effect of a more complex map, compared to 50 levels of enarly identical maps on heroes. The actual AV/Hero confrontation was uneventful.

Most of the team respec'd, so we added two tactics. That and the transition to SO's bumped up the accuracy noticeably. Still it was a night of just +2 mobs, the real test will be +4 and +5. Finished the night at L23.

Relentless Session 12
Ran four or five paper missions to open up the next mayhem, and most of the team reached SO level, err L22. A few of us, or me at least, will probably burn freespecs to pull out DO cash and reslot from 6 DO's to 3 SO's. ED, meh.

Relentless Session 11
The Speed Boost Era.

During the course of the week we had discussed some tweaks to our engagement tactics for the remaining two missions of the SF. Early in the evening, the majority of the team reached L20 and Speed Boost. The SF was of course spawning L22-23. These factors combined made for a very successful evening. The Bat'Zul AV itself spawned at L22 and presented no credible threat. It was held for most of the fight, which only lasted 60 secs at most and no defeats on our team. Oh yeh, and Infernal was there too. Pfft.

Ran another mission afterwards, and most of the team made L21.

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Except for the ambushes that kept coming

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Awesome! I forgot to upload my screenshots last night, so figured I'd mention it next week since ... well ... we'll have to do it again. I lost count as to how many waves, since I faceplanted on the second.

Relentless Session 10
We did the next two missions of the SF at L19 against L22 and L23. Both of these missions are CoTs with lots of -acc debuff, which did not help our already poor chance to hit. That alone effectively bumped the difficulty up a level, making the +4 CoTs difficult. We started the 3rd mission with the intent of just getting a bub for the kin, and the oh-so desirable SB. Without the -acc, the +3 Longbow were a pushover and +4 not a big threat.

In retrospect, we over looked accuracy in building this team, whereas we made sure to cover it on heroes. On heroes, the two blasters had Aim and Buildup at this level while only three corrupters can have Aim. The defenders provided one Tactics and Fortitude, plus Irradiate and other rad blast -def. The controllers added Earths -def and Rad Infection. But the corruptors only provide Rad Infection and single target Infridge. Irradiate is available, but I don't think we're using it. We probably should have had three corruptors pick up tactics at L14. In any case, we still need to add it in as the +tohit will be more effective than the DO/SO transition.

Relentless Session 9
Started the 'Beast Beneath the Mountain' SF. The team was six L18, and two L17. The SF spawned L22-23 Legacy with double boss groups. Finally, something to sink our teeth into. At +4 to most, the L22's were difficult but entirely doable with typically one casualty per group. L23's were quite a bit more problematic. It took multiple attempts, and lots of seperation tactics to finish that group. We made heavy use of the self rez temp powers, lol. Finished at L19.

In comparison to our Heroes run, I'd say that theres about a level of disparity in effectiveness. In both the Positron and Sister Psyche TF's we tackled +4 mobs on DO's with little trouble, while +5's were difficult but doable, and +6 extremely difficult. Qualitatively, about a level different. At this stage, our villain team lacks sufficient +recovery, -def, and +acc compared to the hero team. Crowd control is questionable, too. Domination is great when its up, but inconsitant performance hinders a fast moving team. Most of these issues will be addressed as we level and the necessary buff/debuff powers become available to the corruptors.

Relentless Session 7-8
Again, more regular missions at +2. Had planned to start the first SF at L17, but scheduling conflict prevented it. Most of the team is about L18.2 SF, next week.

Relentless Session 6
With the holidays over, we finally got the entire team together. Ran regular missions against mostly +2 CoTs, Goldbrickers, and Family. We did get beat down by some +3 Family due to some sloppy tactics. Yay, for the temp rez power.

We finished the night with an even con Skyway mayhem, which probably turned out a little too easy. +1 con probably would've been about right and +2 con a legitimate challenge. If we have the opportunity, I'd like to go back and do it on Relentless. Don't think that'll happen though, as I think we'll start the first TF, err SF, next. Most of us are 17 or a bub away, so it may make for an interesting comparison to our Synapse TF done at the same level.

Schedules are tough this time of year, too. We probably won't be able to get all eight together until after New Years.

Thanks guys. It's largely the result of being part of an SG thats been established since release. We don't recruit heavily so our roster doesnt rapidly change. Membership stabilized into a core group of link-minded players with compatible schedules.

As for TFs, remember that its fairly easy now to spread them over multiple sessions. So it really just turns into a couple nights of doing door missions.

Relentless Session 5
Ran the KR mayhem on Relentless for a of team eight. Fellow SG member subbed in a corruptor in place of the Stone brute. Completed the mission with time to spare, but not enough to finish a side mission. Ran some regular missions and finished the night at about L15.5.

Relentless Session 4
Ran the Winter Event mission on Relentless five times. Missing Stone brute, so team of 7 again. Made a little over 2 levels taking us to L14. Most of us slotted DO's at the beginning of the night, but I know the SS/Elec brute hadn't had time to. So, despite trainings and a build geared for offense, with support she tanked +2's easily. Right now our limitation is endurance, whereas heroside we had Speed Boost at L12.

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Does it seem like the missions for villains are scaled more in tune with the representative ATs? Just playing through a few levels of villains, the missions seem a little more difficult than heroside. I was just wondering if you had noticed this in your own efforts?

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Well, the first night when we ran regular missions, we came away from it thinking it was much easier than our first night of heroes. In fact, there were a lot less deaths... only two with the full team present. We kicked around a few theories as to why...

1. Experience playing together. We largely agreed this didnt have much impact the first night. We were on new toons with new power, names, costumes. My wife and I spent the better part of the night saying, "Wait who is so-and-so again?", to each other.

2. Buffs/Debuffs of 5 corruptors > 2 defenders and 2 controllers at low levels. I think this had some impact in the first couple levels, but it will fade quickly. All ATs start out effectively the same, but heroes quickly grow into strong team roles. Whereas the villain ATs can't specialize as effectively.

3. Mob types. Family, Snakes, and Council aren't as difficult as the Vahz and CoTs we did heroside. Most of us agree this was the biggest impact. Our heroes were wading knee deep in huge Vahz groups with multiple Eidolon bosses. Additionally, the spawns seemed smaller on villains, but I'm not sure if this was perception or reality.

In both cases, heroes and villains, we made L8 in the first session. L8-12 is harder to compare because much of that time on villains was spent in the AP Mayhem. The street spawns were small, but the ambushes quite large. Although at one point, in the 8 man runs, we stacked two ambushes. Not a pretty result. Afterwards, short one brute, we ran 2-3 paper missions to reach L12. I think these seemed harder, but I can't say with certainty. The next session will be interesting. On heroes, we ran Positron against +4 to +6 mobs. It was difficult, but we did it. On villains, with no TF available, we'll be looking at +1 to +3. Should be easy...

Relentless Session 3
We were missing the */Stone brute again tonight, but completed the AP mayhem with seven against +2's. Picked up an old school buddy of ours who had a brute about two levels lower. With eight we ran the AP mayhem again just for fun, but were sent packing. Big difference in spawns between the two runs. There wasn't time to grind through multiple +2 bosses properly, so we tended to rush things. Unfortunately, we'll outlevel it before we can 'get it right'. Finished at L12.