My apologies if this sounds like a rant - it is to an extent, but I need to let the developers of this game know how I feel. Over the past six months City of Heroes has become a great source of relaxation and enjoyment to me. I appreciate everything that has gone into the creation of this games, and I am in fullest agreement with you that it truly shines when played as a team event. However, the superhero genre that you have so well captured is not primarily about teams. The vast majority of comic books are about single characters, and with the introduction of issue 3 you have taken that away from all of us.
I play an engery/engery blaster archetype (Quantumstar) and am part of a very active super group (The Guardians of Gaea) - we often team together for missions, and this is extremely fun. However, there are times when I play solo, either due to the lack of availability of other players or because I prefer to run by myself. I often consider these solo adventures to be the story in my character's own comic book as opposed to him being in the team book. In any event, since the release of issue 3 it has become obvious to me that I can no longer solo.
The reason for this is entirely because of the increased difficulty of the bosses. In solo adventuring since issue 3 went live I have only twice been able to defeat a boss - in all but one instance my confrontations with a boss have lead to my toon's defeat. These defeats continued even after the free respec that you so graciously gave us improved my defenses. Furthermore, in several instances a single blow from the boss defeated my character. This is hardly fun for me.
When I mentioned this problem to other members of my super group and friends, they responded with similar stories and opinions. I consider myself an average player with an average character build, and if I am having this much trouble then so are a large number of other players. It is an enormous frustration to me when I come to the end of a mission and run into a boss - because at that point I know that I cannot complete it. Instead I must call for help, and hope that someone is available. In more than ten cases I have had to abandon a mission because I could not get the help I needed.
It used to be that I scoffed at defenders and controllers who couldnt complete missions on their own, now I appreciate their anguish and suffering. Quite honestly this has become an intolerable state of affairs. Please, as a loyal player and fan of this game, fix this problem. Review what you have done to the bosses in issue 3 and devise another method of encouraging team play perhaps additional experience points for working in a team, the additional amount increased proportionally to the number of players in the group. The same could be done with drops of enhancements or inspirations, or solo characters could be penalized in some manner. Regardless of what you choose to do, please give us back the ability to play solo. You will make a considerable number of us very happy again.
Thank you for all your time and effort in this!
