This has been a fun project. Some other interesting things that have happened besides what Overboard has listed from the missions, is the selection and slotting of some powers, the risk vs reward design of the game, and the lack of challenging content post 40.
As a team we chose the power sets we thought would be best, and then we picked the characters we wanted to play. For most of us it was to try something different, for example this is my first tank, overboards first blaster, our scrappers first DA scrapper, etc.
Power selections were chosen more because they would help the team, rather than the more common, I need this power for my build, or I will take this power to make me more desired on teams. Not that there is anything wrong with choosing powers that way, its just having the guaranteed support from the team, makes your power selections and slotting a bit different. Once we have all hit 50, I am sure most of us will respec into a more traditional type of build.
With a kinetic and an empath on the team, many of us have little use for Stamina from the fitness pool, and could probably skip that pool altogether. I still have not taken stamina, and many of those that did, took it much later in the build than normal. As the tank I have Invincibility slotted with defense and taunt enhancers, because the team provides the end recovery and to-hit buffs. Some of the builds that would traditionally take hasten have skipped it or taken it late because of +recharge buffs. New powers that are normally slotted with an accuracy SO first, are sometimes slotted with damage instead because of the to-hit buffs on the team.
Some of us were disappointed; when they rolled the AV buff back, lol, since the +3 AV was more of a challenge. We can take +6s, but it is not worth the time involved due to the purple patch way back around Issue 1. The Katie Hannon TF was a huge waste of time with the AV spawning at +7 to most of the team and no SO drops for the 9 AVs we did defeat, which is to bad, as that use to be one of my favorite TFs to run. The Numina TF is weak on XP, with all the hunt missions in the lowbie zones for a small mission bonus and has left us having to grind levels before we get to the next challenge.
Fighting +5s are the best for us, but we have no way of getting those types of spawns consistently unless we start street sweeping, which means ignoring the content of the rest of the game, which is something I dont think the devs really want. Regular missions offer so little in the way of rewards, that when we do need some quick XP to get to that next level, PvP missions have been the way to go, and again we bypass the normal mission content of the game.
Possibly the most interesting thing is that now that the team have all hit 36, and the regular mission content, even on invincible, offers us little challenge, we are already hurting for things to do.
Last night we ran a badge mission in Creys, then hunted lvl39 Freakshow who offer better XP than most other groups, but the XP was not worthwhile and we grew bored quickly. It felt like we were going nowhere. So we proceeded to Warburg to run PvP missions, as we believed it would be faster than trying to find lvl41 mobs in PI. Still not a great challenge, but the XP was very fast, and of course the mission bonuses help a lot and five of us hit 37. This would have been a great time for us to move to the Rikti Crash Site, but that is restricted to us until level 40.
Our main goal now is to get at least one of the team to 38 so we can run the Sewer Trial, which will spawn level 42 rikti, and a 90-minute timer. Originally, we thought the sewer trial would be the best test for the team, so I am anxious to get to it, and see how we do. At 39 we can run the Eden Trial but I believe the mobs cap at lvl41 even on invincible so I dont think that will be a challenge. The Eden Trial should be good XP and could get us all to level 40.
Once we all hit Level 40, things will slow way down for content for us (which is nothing new in COH). Since Task Forces have been the only way we can generate +5s with any type of consistency, we will look to run the first two Shadow Shard TFs, which I honestly dont think will be worth the XP for the time involved. Rularuu can be a challenging group to face so that may make it worth it to us. If we do run them, it is doubtful that they will provide enough XP to get us all to lvl44 so that we can run the last two Shard TFs, and those will definitely not give us enough XP to get to level 50.
So beginning at level 36, we are forced to grind out two levels before we get to anything fun and challenging to us. We will then need to get the whole group to level 40 so we can run two TFs, then a probable grind to 44 for two more TFs and the 3rd respec trial. I know the lack of an endgame is often discussed on these forums, but I was surprised that it seems to occur so early.
If I8 hits before we are done with this team, then maybe we will have some new content to run through, but it is looking like we will have to spend a lot of time working through regular missions, which have not been much of a challenge, or just grind ourselves to 50 via Warburg missions. If we have to do regular missions, we will probably focus on fighting the Malta and Carnies and the Heros Hero arc for the AVs.
Being able to run with this team at set times, has been a lot of fun, and has made the development of the characters more interesting. The game limits the amount of risk we can encounter to +3s unless we run TFs on invincible, or get really picky while street hunting. We need at least one, but preferably two new mission difficulties to allow us to fight +4s and +5s and have decent risk vs. rewards. In addition to the lack of endgame for COH, there is a lack of interesting content in the 35+ range. Striga (Issue 3) and Croatoa (Issue 5), helped to fill out the 20-35 range nicely, but it is definitely time for a new zone or something for the 35+ characters. The 35-40 game has been a problem for casual/solo players for some time now. The Shadow Shard is there for the 40+ game, but its not enough.
I like seeing all of the concept teams that people have suggested in this thread and I hope they run with them. Our next little project will most likely be Team Relentless in COV. If people are interested, we will try and keep this thread updated.
They don't like downtime, which works for the rest of the team too.