The SuperTeam: An Ongoing Concept Suggestion Guide
By
Acerak,
Posted on: 2005-11-28 20:39 in Player Guides
Name: King's Row Martial Arts
Shard: CoH
Overall Theme: A powerful superteam that is part identical build, part all-melee, and part disorient team.
Backstory: An old and wise former hero and martial arts master, founder of his own "Air Fist" style of martial arts, decides to form a martial arts school for the sometimes forgotten youth of King's Row.
Group Make-up: 7 natural scrappers (martial arts/super reflexes or martial arts/invunerability). 1 magic mind/storm controller.
<ul type="square"> [*]Controller: The controller, who keeps the team from being all melee, is the magical leader of the school and a central figure in the team. He is a martial arts master whose mental abilities (Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate, Mass Hyp, Total Domination, Terrify) combine with his magical martial arts skills (Gale, O2 Boost, Steamy Mist, Thunder Clap, Tornado).
He is a melee-stormer. The rare storm defender that skips hurricane and that has thunder clap jump to the forefront as one of the more important powers of the set. He supplements his magical martial arts with the entire fighting pool set. And his "master's aura" is enhanced by taking challenge, intimidate, and invoke panic from the presence pool, which will meld with his Terrify ability. Late in his career he will grab the final three powers of the psionic mastery pool.
He spends most of his time with all-the-time steamy mist and hovering around with a hover nicely slotted for speed. He also takes fly and recall friend and serves as the travel taxi for the team.
[*]Scrappers: The scrappers of the team are the students of the martial arts school. All share the martial arts primary. Most will have the super reflexes secondary, but some may have invulnerability.
Thunder Kick and Cobra Strike both come very early for all the scrappers on this team, and the synergy of these two powers times 7 will create an impressive disorienting effect. Since travel is taken care of by the controller, the scrappers can invest in the entire fighting pool (skipping kick) as well as the entire fitness pool. Some of the scrappers may even decide to take jump kick or flurry for stylistic reasons. The more skilled students will eventually evolve into powers from weapon mastery or body mastery.[/list]
Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: The controller may have a standard old and tattered looking martial arts uniform. He'll have the typical long beard and wizened aged look.
The scrappers all will wear nearly identical white dobak (martial arts uniforms) with belts. Some small differences may be sleeves/no sleeves, tattered/non-tattered edges. But for the most parts their uniforms are identical. Much more custimization can go into the face and body type. Some are large, some are small, some are male, some female. All are around teenage/early adult age. And pretty natural "friend down the street" looks since they really are natural heroes.
A main draw of martial arts, super reflexes, and invulnerability is to maintain the "pure" look of the mostly natural team. Outside of the controller, there really are not a lot of flashing lights, magical effects, and strange colors that take away from the stylized look of a bunch of regular martial arts teenagers taking on tough missions with only their fists and feet.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: This near all-melee team is first and foremost a disorient team. As buggy as disorient may be, a big part of this team's defense relies on keeping key opponents disoriented, feared, knocked down or other wise unable to attack. Two stacked cobra strikes will disorient any boss. The presence of seven cobra strikes combined with the infrequent stuns from thunder kick and boxing as well as the miraculously useful thunder clap will help keep a large percentage of enemies too stunned to rally much of a counter-attack. The large number of disorient powers allows the team to put only a few disorient enhancements into the key powers and they don't have to go too wild with it since you have so many disorient powers to begin with (thunder clap should receive a healthy serving of enhancements, however).
The large amount of disorienting also gives the team more leeway to give a lot of focus to offense, with some of the teammembers keeping minimal maintenance slots on the defensive powers.
Healing, when it is needed goes the same route as many all-melee teams... pass the teammate a respite. However, the team does have the benefit of O2 Boost, which can become a machine gun heal with a few recharge SOs and heal SOs. The player of the storm controller will become a skilled user of SHIFT-selecting or binds to quickly select the teammates for heals, even though they will rarely be needed.
Combat will typically be a wild all-melee affair as the entire team rushes into melee range, lays down disorients on the most critical enemies, and then allowing the combat to devolve into a mess of stumbling enemies, cowering feared enemies, and those enemies knocked down and knocked back. In most cases, a few seconds into the combat engagement, it is already over for all intents and purposes. Since just about all teammembers will own swift with maybe a couple of extra slots, there isn't much of a problem chasing down a knocked back enemy or a stumbling away villain. The lack of an aura heal makes this a rare team that can disobey the usual "stay within aura range" rule. However, most may still want to hang close to remain inside the steamy mist.
Alternative Suggestions: Two of the scrappers can be replaced by very offensively built super strength/invul. tanks. One the main focuses of the tanks is to develop their hand clap skills to match the thunder clap of their teacher. Without even mentioning the scrappers, this triple disorienting aura combo is something to fear. A strong arguement has also been made to change the controller from mind/storm to mind/kinetic for the melee loving damage buffs, transfusion, increase density, and speed boost. Tactically, it's a great fit, but I still place the mind/storm higher because of thunder clap and in terms of coolness and the overall team theme. You, of course, are free to do whatever you want. But those that know me know that I tend to value unique features and cool fun a little bit higher than how fast the group can gain levels.
Name: The Offensive Line
Shard: CoH/CoV
Overall Theme: A football based, near all-melee superteam
Backstory: Nothing much to them. They are a football team.
Group Make-up: 1 controller (illusion/kinetics), 1 defender (sonic/sonic), 6 tanks (super strength/invul.)
<ul type="square">[*]Controller: The "coach" of the team is known for blinding the opponent from his plays, concealing players from the defense, or even outright deceiving them and making the opponent see extra receivers that aren't really there (Blind, Deceive, Flash, Group Invisibility, Phantom Army). He is also serves as a bit of a team medic, patching up sore bruises and giving the players whatever shots they happen to need to help them play up to a pro level (every kinetic power except repel) (and some powers from the medicine pool). He's also the taxi, who gets the team around from game to game (recall, teleport, team teleport... many of which might be respeced out of once inertial reduction comes into the picture).
[*]Defender: The quarterback of the team is known for a dominating voice that wills his teammates to succeed, intimidates opponents, and calls out audibles with ease in the loudest of arenas. So, of course, he is a sonic/sonic defender. His primary focus is mainly on Sonic Siphon, Disruption Field, and Clarity. He puts a lot of work into his sonic blast attacks, as the -res of sonic is a big part of the group effort. To this he adds the full load of leadership powers and some of the leaping pool powers.
[*]Tankers(s): The tankers make up the bulk of the team, and are scrankers in every sense of the word. Some of them, the bigger linemen, take more powers from invulnerability. Some of the smaller tankers are very offensively focused and may only grab the quick and easy auto powers and the non-toggles from invulnerability. All the tankers put a lot of time and enhancements into their super strength powers, while also dabbling in powers from fitness, fighting, leaping, presence, or speed.[/list]Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: Nothing much to add on costumes. Fairly muscular, some standard male, some huge. Standard football fare: hitech helmets, numbers on chest, sleek tights and sleek chest tights, shoulder pads, chin guards or iron jaws. Mess around with the pattern options for the pants and chest, as well as the color combinations to come up with a cool looking standard uniform for the team (supergroup mode can be the 'home' colors). Make the coach look like however you want a coach to look.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: Standard offensive all-melee strategies. With the large number of SS tankers, mass hand clap stacking becomes very attractive. This is a very offense-first team. The sonic/sonic defender and the controller are both here to augment the team's offense and to brutally weaken the damage output and damage resistance of the opponent.
Alternative Suggestions: There is always room to change the defender-skills choices for the controller and defender. While you do probably want to hang onto sonic blast, radiation and empathy are also strong choices if one wants to get out of sonic resonance and kinetics.
This same team also lends very well to City of Villians. Simply replace the tankers with brutes, and the defender/controller with two corruptors, one sonic/sonic and one sonic/kinetics. As for costume choices, I'd imagine that the villain form of this team would look something like a group of rabid Oakland Raiders fans. Lots of black, spikes, barbed wire, etc. (Now I just have to sit back and wait for the first football-esque villains with names like "HeHateMe" to pop up. <--- random football fan inside joke).
Hopefully someone can get the hero and villain versions of these teams together one day for a "friendly" scrimmage. 
More to come later....
Name: Buffer Overrun
Shard: Freedom/CoH
Overall Theme: All Radiation
Backstory: A hero named "Buffer Master" wondered what it would be like if enough Radiation heroes got together to reach Critical Mass.
Group Make-up: All Radiation primary Defenders or Radiation secondary Controllers. Ideally you want a few Illusion/Rad Controllers and a few people with Teleport & Recall Friend. Leadership is recommended for everyone.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: Play in big teams. Everyone casts Accelerate Metabolism. In a team of 8, that's +200% Damage, +240% Recharge Reduction, around base Super Speed, and a huge END Recovery bonus. Run around real fast, attack fast, hit hard, and go till AM runs out. Gather, recast AM (it's nearly perma without any slotting), and repeat.
Once you get the Rad debuffs (Radiation Infection, Enervating Field, and Lingering Radiation), make sure you open combat with one of them.
At higher levels, you need Phantom Army from the Illusion/Rad Controller to open combat.
See the link in my sig. I founded a SG around this concept a year ago, and had a lot of success with it. It's died down a lot, as I've moved on to other Super Teams.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
Name: Tank Mages
Shard: Protector/CoH
Overall Theme: Massive offensive and defensive buffs
Backstory: A Defender named "Tanker Wannabe" got tired of sitting around LFT, so he decided to make a SG of all Defenders that only teamed with each other.
Group Make-up: All Defenders: 2 Force Fields, 2 Sonics, 4 Kinetics per team. Any Secondary. Leadership is HIGHLY recommended for everyone.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: Play in big teams. The Force Fielders and Sonics bubble everyone, giving most everyone capped Damage Resistance and a huge Defense bonus. The Dispersion Bubbles and Increase Density from the Kinetics gives everyone massive status protection. This turns everyone into tanks.
The Kinetics Speed Boost everyone, giving massive END Recovery, Movement, and Recharge Reduction bonuses. They use Siphon Power and later Fulcrum Shift to give everyone capped damage. Everyone takes mainly AoE attacks slotted for Recharge Reduction, and casts them as fast as possible. The huge damage output is what earns us the name Mages.
Playing on this sort of team is a unique experience. We use Group Fly and Team Teleport. We teleport from group to group, using AoEs to wipe out the minions and get agro, then herding the surviving Lts and bosses.
It isn't for everyone. We have to stop and rebuff often. In fact we often just stand there in the middle of combat and rebuff everyone, ignoring the mobs attacking us. But it can get old real quick.
SKs can make a solid contribution. They don't need a movement power, thanks to Teleport, Recall Friend, Group Fly, and Inertial Reduction when needed. Most of the important powers (bubbles, Speed Boost, etc) are available at low levels. Thanks to all the buffs, SKs attack nonstop and hit almost all the time for capped damage, even with unslotted attacks.
See the link in my sig for Buffer Overrun; we use that site for Tank Mages too. I founded a SG around this concept several months ago. We got a core team up to around level 40 before CoV distracted us. But most of us have gotten level 40 villains now (see my next Super Team, Buffer Overdose), so we're back to playing our Tank Mages. This is my current Super Team.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
Name: Buffer Overdose
Shard: Justice/CoV
Overall Theme: Illegitimate child of Buffer Overrun and Tank Mages.
Backstory: A villain named TopDoc researched the various hero Super Teams, and came up with a villain Super Team to fight them.
Group Make-up: Each team should have 1-2 characters with Defense (Force Field Mastermind or Cold Domination Corruptor), 1-2 with Damage Resistance (ideally Sonic Corruptors), and the rest Radiation secondary Corruptors. Fire is the recommended Corruptor primary for PvE, or Ice for PvP. Leadership is REALLY highly recommended for everyone.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: It's a lot like Tank Mages and Buffer Overrun combined. Play in big teams. The characters with defensive powers buff the team, Rads use Accelerate Metabolism, Rads open combat using debuffs, everyone AoEs, finish the bosses, move on.
See the link in my sig for Buffer Overrun; we use that site for Buffer Overdose too. I founded this SG 4 hours after the CoV head start opened (when I hit level 10). The core team got up to level 40 about a week ago, and the SG has slowed down a lot. We've got a raid ready base and not much to do with it. The core players have started low level villain (for content), gone back to Tank Mages, or are playing other heroes. It'll perk up again with the Cathedral trial and level 50 content.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
Re: Tank Mages
TopDoc, I must have been living under a rock or something, I didn't even know about Tank Mages (that'll teach me to disappear for months at a time). Being the nut that I am, the 'first' thing that popped into my mind was "OMG!! Double repulsion field + 4 repels!!" lol
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We use Group Fly and Team Teleport.
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I finally got to experience this just a couple days ago. I noticed the force fielder in one of my teams had team teleport, so I asked him to taxi us a bit over an outdoor mission. He said that team teleport is a bit troublesome to use, then I cut on group fly and said "How about now?"
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At higher levels, you need Phantom Army from the Illusion/Rad Controller to open combat.
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I remember this discussion from when the change was made to bring aboard ill/rad controllers to join the rad/rads. Was it because you needed someone else to take the alpha? Or high level mezzing issues? Or the mission difficulty?
The reason I ask is because I'm curious as to how the offensive heavy higher level SuperTeams can cope with the mezzing issues and others. It is something they can just get through by selecting better missions, lowering the difficulty, and carrying a few more break-frees. Or is it something they really should plan for strongly at the start of the team?
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OMG!! Double repulsion field + 4 repels!!
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Actually, no. We don't use any form of repulsion in PvE. Many of the best Kinetic powers are target based buffs, including Transfusion(heal), Transference (END), and the biggie Fulcrum Shift (damage). We teleport right into the middle of mobs and stay there.
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I remember this discussion from when the change was made to bring aboard ill/rad controllers to join the rad/rads. Was it because you needed someone else to take the alpha? Or high level mezzing issues? Or the mission difficulty?
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Alpha and mezzing. From about level 20 and on, it's really hard for a big team of all Rad Defenders. The mob alpha strike can frequently blow you away, even if you open combat with Radiation Infection (RI, a ToHit and Defense debuff). After all, you aren't going to affect every mob in a group unless they're pretty close. And if a single mez lands on the opener, perhaps from an undebuffed mob on the sidelines, down goes RI, and the second volley finishes them off. You can't turn down the difficulty enough to avoid this.
By opening combat with Phantom Army every time, the mob alpha is wasted on it. We could then do rad debuffs and Controller AoE holds more safely. The Controllers were also nice for pets. Thanks to Accelerate Metabolism (AM), the Controllers could get out lots of pets. And again thanks to AM, the pets were massively buffed. Pet Controllers did more damage than Defenders.
You really need to take status protection into account. These days, a single unbuffed Tanker with Taunt probably isn't going to cut it for a Super Team. Tank status protection was recently reduced. Higher level mobs use more status effects. Many minions have single target status effects, though they may be on a long timer. And many higher ups have AoE or cone status effects. At higher levels, you need decent status protection for the entire team and extra on the tank if you want a real Super Team. Otherwise, mez heavy mobs will eat you alive. Break Frees aren't an option in large missions or Task Forces unless you want to take a lot of extra time running to stores or hitting up friends to buy them.
The original Buffer Overrun with Defenders didn't cover this well enough. Tank Mages has 2 FF and 2 Sonic Defenders with Dispersion bubbles, and 4 Kinetics with Increase Density if needed. Buffer Overdose has dispersion bubbles and AM to reduce what gets through.
Higher level mobs do disproportionately more damage. They also have higher damage ranged attacks and more AoEs. You need some form of damage mitigation, again beyond a single unbuffed Tanker with Taunt. At the high end, it only takes a couple attacks from the wrong mob to take down a squishy. A pair of Freak Tanks launching grenades can take out a whole team of squishies. Team buffs are better than mob debuffs, due to the max number of targets limitation.
Again the original Buffer Overrun with Defenders didn't cover this well enough at high levels. In Tank Mages, everyone has high Damage Resistance and Defense. Buffer Overdose is lighter on defenses than Tank Mages, but they make up for it with Rad debuffs.
These days, I'd say most Super Teams should have at least 1 Force Fielder or 1 Sonic. Ideally both, with decent healing on the side. They provide status protection and damage mitigation.
It's best to design Super Teams with solid mez protection and damage mitigation in mind. It's a sad thing to cut through early missions like a hot knife through butter, only to be cut to pieces as you get into higher level missions.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
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Alpha and mezzing. From about level 20 and on, it's really hard for a big team of all Rad Defenders.
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The other reason I brought up the question is because, in all honestly, I haven't had the experience of many teams being repeatedly crushed by mezzing. And I've been continually trying to turn it over in my mind and understand why that is, and why it's not the case for other teams.
I understand a big part of the rad issue is the overall toggle dependence. One mez and down goes everything. Another part is the lack of front-line aura defense that some of the other all-defender teams have access too. But still, I'm blown away that the mezz resistance from 8 stacked AMs do so little, and that the villains are slicing through the 8 stacked manuevers. What about the issue of mezzing them first? Are 8 stacked choaking clouds really that ineffective also?
You might remember that my usual teams are the blaster/defender pick-up groups led by my storm defender. I never really noticed much of a mezzing problem until the mid-to-late 30s. And even then and after, it's been more mezzing annoyance if anything, because my stormer runs so many toggles that have to be fired back up. Even Malta, who I've historically heard so many horror stories about, have never been much of a problem. I recall my group from yesterday, where I was on my way to the usual 8-hero blaster/defender group. After I recruited two blasters, I suddenly found out that I had to leave. And not wanting them to leave empty-handed, I asked if they wanted the three of us to quickly run through the invincible mission. So we did, in 8 minutes. I opened every battle, I was mezzed a total of three times. Fully sapper drained once. I used O2 boost three times. Whether 2 teammates or 7, this is pretty much the usual mission norm for me.
Here are three issues I've kinda settled on as the things that are saving me.
- High damage - Things flat out don't live very long for mezzing to be a problem. Two or three people might get sleepy, but the other 5 blow everything away. People always ask me why I lead blaster/defender teams as opposed to straight all-defender. My usual answer is because these are pick-up teams and not SuperTeams. Most non-superteam defenders are very primary focused with little offensive focus. So I add blasters, who are naturally focused for offense, to fill that gap. Lately, I've been wondering about the magnitude of difference between blaster damage and defender damage, and wondering if some of the all-defender teams could benefit from including a blaster or three in the mix.
- Chaos, disruption, and distraction - Since starting my storm defender a year ago, you will not believe how much these three words have been burned into my soul. Pretty much every character I have, including the tankers and scrappers, live by these in a teaming environment.
Like the phantoms in your teams, in my teams my storm defender *is* the distraction, since I open just about every battle. I also add a lot of the chaos and disruption, but my teammates also contribute a bit to that effect.
The opening sequence rarely changes. A quick kiss with hurricane to debuff some of them, but not to forcefull and blow everything away. Then a snow storm on a tough opponent in the center. Then a freezing rain on top of the group. Then maybe lightning storm to finish, before I start my regular attacking.
Around the time freezing rain comes up is when the rest of the team rushes in with lots of AoEs, more debuffs, and generally blows the enemies apart.
The result is that the team only really takes at most attacks from 1/3 of the group of enemies at a time. The other 2/3 are disoriented, running away from freezing rain, or in the processes of getting up from being knocked back. That's the chaos and disruption.
To this day, people still look at me cross-eyed when I tell them that knockback is a key component of protecting my teams. So yes, I was partially serious when I brought up the repulsion fields and repels.
The grand point is that my teams very rarely if ever face the aggro from a full pack of enemies turning in perfect unison and firing on us. Two freak tank grenades won't kill a squishy team, but two coordinated freak tank grenades will. A lot of my characters these days throw a variety of wrenches into that very coordination of the enemy groups. The main benefit we get from this is time. Time to fit in that aura heal. Time to buff or de-mezz someone. And time to regroup if necessary. All because we give the enemies a lot more to worry about besides just shooting at us.
Somewhere between the two extremes of 'keeping everything perfectly and ridgidly close together for max AoE efficiency' and 'knockbacking everything around completely randomly', there is a happy medium ground that offers good efficiency with the added chaos defense. I don't know exactly where it is, but I think I'm pretty close.
(note: anyone spying in on me and TopDoc's discussion here, but is also interested in this particular issue, may want to reference Philotic Knight's Combat Handbook for a more eloquent discussion about it.) - Third, and finally, many those chaos effects are not toggle dependant. I'll be the first to admit, my usual battle opening is nuts. And it honestly wouldn't work if it wasn't for the sheer overpoweredness of hurricane. I frequently roll right up to a +4 mob of enemies in invincible missions and complete the entire opening without getting hit once. But I do often take some hits, and sometimes I'm mezzed. Depending on when the mezz happens some of the things like freezing rain, lightning storm, and even sometimes tornado are all out still churning away, even as I stumble around baffoon-like. And even then, while I stumble around, the rest of my non-mezzed teammates are rushing in to blow the enemy apart, pass me a break-free, and heal me when I need it.
I know that none of those three are very useful to an all-rad team. And I pretty much agree that all-rads are probably just inherently weak against powerfully mezzing villain types.
My main point of disagreement is that through all this discussion, we're still talking about invincible missions.
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You can't turn down the difficulty enough to avoid this.
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It's best to design Super Teams with solid mez protection and damage mitigation in mind. It's a sad thing to cut through early missions like a hot knife through butter, only to be cut to pieces as you get into higher level missions.
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This is where I'm still not quite on board. You and I both run teams that press the limits of what's possible, but I don't think that every SuperTeam needs or should run invincible missions all the time.
The best single defense in the game, bar none, is security level. I really have a hard time believing that the all-rads can't take down any 'heroic' mission they come against. I have a hard time believing that any SuperTeam will have a tough time with a mission facing a lot of blues, whites, and the occasional yellow. Maybe they might take some missions, slowly and cautiously, but they can get it done. It won't kill people if one of the teammates takes the extra 30 seconds to visit a contact for enough break-frees to make sure everyone has two. Inspiration work is part of SuperTeaming too.
Lastly is the fact that some teams are simply stronger and weaker against certain villains. There's no rule that they have to bang their heads against the wall fighting foes they don't like. There's more than enough content that people don't have to complete every single Devoured Earth or Carnival arc. And people already reach 50 without ever setting foot in the Shadow Shard.
Even my storm defender practices this with his teams. I rarely do anything from the contact that gives the Carnival missions, aside from those instances when it's time to test ourselves with something harder than normal. We can usually do the carnie missions without too much fuss, but it's honestly much easier to just tackle an invincible malta, crey, or portal mission. So that's what we usually do.
It's possible to design a SuperTeam in a way that mezzing is never, ever, a problem (and maybe we'll post something like that later in the thread
). But I'm sure that team will have holes somewhere that some other villain type can exploit.
Name: Army of Darkness
Shard: CoV
Overall Theme: Everything Dark. It's debuff and control oriented instead of buff-oriented like most SuperTeams.
Backstory: The numerous Heroes and Villains tapping into the forces of the Netherworld have opened a rift. The leaders of the Netherworld sent the Army to wreak havoc on humanity, and to demonstrate that tapping the power of the Netherworld is never to be done carelessly.
Group Make-up: Four DM/DA brutes, three DB/DM corruptors, one Necro/DM mastermind, all magic (or natural) origin.
Power choices are not that much different from what you'd have in solo play.
The brutes have the luxury of focusing on their attacks, as there should be so much -Acc flying around that the mobs can do nothing but flail as they're destroyed. But they should take their three basic shields to handle the 5% of hits that will always slip through. They can skip Siphon Life and Dark Regen, since four Twilight Grasps should suffice to keep them topped off, but Dark Consumption and Swift/Health/Stamina will be needed to keep their blue bars full. Other pools are Flight (slotted Hover for KB defense) and Leadership (Assault, Tactics).
The corruptors and MM get access to the many toys Dark Miasma has available. Key picks for them are Darkest Night and Tar Patch, then proceed to taste. Corruptors should certainly take Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall. The MM should skip his blasts and take only minions and upgrades from his primary. All non-brutes take Leadership (Assault, Tactics) and Speed (Hasten). Someone, probably the MM, can take Recall Friend and Teleport for travel.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: One strength of this concept is its flexibility, you have a plethora of ways of locking down the enemy. In the low levels you're relying strictly on -Acc. Later on you can branch out into Fear (Touch of Fear, Cloak of Fear, and Fearsome Stare) and Disorient (Dark Pit and Oppressive Gloom). You have a stealth option with Shadowfall and Cloak of Darkness. At level 38 Dark Servants join the fray for even more mayhem.
Costume, Names, and other Design Issues: CoV is good at letting you look like a demon. Monstrous body types with Monstrous heads or the Demonic Face mask. Capes are out, but auras can be fun.
Or you can mess with people's heads and make yourselves look like mild-mannered accountants. Coordination is the key.
Alternative Suggestions: You can easily skip the MM for another corruptor, I just put him there so you could have a 'leader' for concept.
You could make a CoH version with four DM/DA scrappers and four DM/DB defenders. It makes less sense thematically, but might be stronger overall since the defenders get their Dark Miasma toys earlier than corruptors and MMs do, and the effects are stronger. On the other hand, the brutes can dish out more pain than the scrappers once they get their Fury going.
If you really wanted to stress the Fear aspect, you could make the builds more specialized and dip into the Presence pool.
Re: Army of Darkness
Thanks for that one, Obtenebrator.
Now this is what a dark team should be. (Oh yeah, plenty of praise for City of Villians for finally getting all the "Netherworld Servant", I'm good-but not really heroes over into the Villian side where they belong. 
)
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One strength of this concept is its flexibility, you have a plethora of ways of locking down the enemy. In the low levels you're relying strictly on -Acc. Later on you can branch out into Fear (Touch of Fear, Cloak of Fear, and Fearsome Stare) and Disorient (Dark Pit and Oppressive Gloom).
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This is one of the cooler aspects of the team in my opinion. Especially when you bring up the four stacked tar patches. Of course, the number one critic you'll hear will probably be the brutes. Who, when all the -slow, disorient, and fear stuff flying around, are bound to say "But what about my fury?"
In terms of SuperTeams, I don't think the world has to revolve around fury, like it does for the solo brute. If the team is doing well and crushing everything they come across does it matter if the fury bar is filled or not?
I don't think it does. And I hope that sooner or later, the brutes learn to get along with the dominators.
All this talk of knockbacking and Philotic Knight's recent force field guide has me grabbing and dusting off this one from the vault. It's the invulnerability tankers worst nightmare...
Name: Paragon High Knockback Club
Shard: CoH
Overall Theme: A blaster/defender team geared to the height of knockback.
Backstory: When the forgetful Doc. K left a volitile experiment running, the resultant gases triggered strange super powers in the students of his senior physics class. Now this group of Paragon High School students have decided to form their own secret club in order to use their new powers for good.
Group Make-up: 5 blasters (energy/energy), 3 defenders (force field/energy); all are science origin
<ul type="square"> [*]Blasters: The offensive backbone of the team, the blasters will fill a number of roles. The blasters will supplement the knockback effects many of their powers with a sprinkling of range enhancements to increase the advantage. All of the blasters will dabble in the fitness pool and take assault, tactics, combat jumping, and stun. They will use hasten along with powers like build up, conserve power, and boost range to produce brief periods of increased effectiveness, saved for tougher battles. At the higher levels, the blasters may take personal force field and repulsion field, creating a team of eight heroes with these powers.
[*]Defenders: The three force field defenders are the backbone of the team's defense. They will take every force field power since each will find a use. In energy blast, their main emphasis is on the first two attacks and the sniper attack. Two of the force fielders will pick up a few powers from the medicine pool and the other will use the teleport pool to fulfill many of the travel duties for the team. Assault and tactics are also taken, assuring that all eight teammates have these two powers. [/list]Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: These are, primarily, high school kids. So the costumes aren't extremely 'hero-esque.' Maybe regular jeans and t-shirts with a simple eye mask. Or perhaps Paragon High has a blue/white uniform they could all wear and pair up with their 'hero attire' of gloves and the blue eye masks when it's time for crime-fighting.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: There are a few different layers to the strategy of this team so I'll give a statement for each.
<ul type="square"> [*]Blaster/Defender Formation: The standard blaster/defender team formation is always the same, keeping the entire team as close together as possible. In other teams, this helps aura efficiency since everyone is always close enough for the auras. Outside of leadership, aura efficiency really isn't an issue with this team, but the standard formation has a lot of other uses. Anything entering melee range with the team will almost certainly run into one of the three repulsion fields from the force fielders. Everyone is safely within the aura range of the leadership powers and the three stacked dispersion bubbles. With full bubbles, the blasters on the team each have 9 bubbles on them at any one time. Anyone who has ever been on a team with more than two force fielders, knows how significant this level of defense can be, especially with the recent addition of the rarely talked about, but highly significant, mezz protection to dispersion bubble.
[*]Knockback: Knockback is a key component of this team. But, in general, knockback is a pretty advanced concept in a team setting. Many players do not know how to use knockback while in a group, or adapt to other players who use knockback powers, causing many to view it as worthless or undesirable. In fact, knockback (like slow) is a powerful form of indirect defense. Quite simply, enemies on the ground are not attacking your team. They are 'out-of-the fight' for a few precious seconds. Using this effectively in a team is a tricky thing to accomplish. And it will take 8 pretty skilled heroes some practice before everyone is on the same page.
The first adjustment that needs to be made, in terms of knockback, is respecting the blaster/defender formation. The first thing 99% of people do when in enemy is knocked back is to chase it in order to get into range for another attack. This team needs to stay at home. You can't have 8 heroes all running off in different directions. On average, this team will invest much more heavily in range enhancements. That helps a little, but beyond that, if an enemy is knocked out of range, the target simply needs to be changed to an enemy that is in range.
The force fielders are the masters of directed knockback. With a couple recharge enhancements, force bolt can become machine-gun-like in its speed to fire on the incoming enemy lines. With three of these force bolts, and players skilled at picking enemies, the number of enemies entering melee ranged is significantly reduced. The tricks comes after the early game, when repulsion field enters the picture. Now the force fielders will have to choose their targets more carefully, since you don't want to waste the effort force bolting something that will simply bounce of the repulsion field. Another skill is understanding the combat situation. There are times when you want to machine-gun force bolt something to keep it locked down. But there are other times when the combat is winding down and you want to allow the enemy to approach closer so that the team can finish it off.
[*]Damage Mitigation: Detention and Disorient: A last strategy layer involves the other tactics (outside of knockback) that the team can use to mitigate a lot of damage. Three force fielders means three detention fields. Regardless of what you've heard, detention field works just fine if the team has good communication and a proper strategy to use it. Imagine a situation where the team is facing a group of enemies with 3 bosses. All three bosses can be detained while the team quickly mops up the minions and the lieutenants. Or done another way, maybe 1 boss can be detained, the second boss can receive the coordinated attacks from the blasters, while the third boss is being locked down by force bolts.
The team can use disorient in a similar way. All five blasters have access to the stun power. Between them, this gives the team the ability to roll up to any enemy group and stun two bosses and one lieutenant. And the melee ranged blasters are now primed to receive repulsion bombs from the force fielders.
All of this combines (knockback, detaining, and disorient) to give the team a much higher defense than it would seem just by glancing at the force field numbers. But it takes skill, this team is much more involved than just throwing up some force fields and blasting things.[/list]
Alternative Suggestions: A City of Villians group could be made using many of the same strategies with Corruptors (Energy Blast/Traps) and Masterminds (force fields).
Alternates for the hero team: The blasters who prefer not to use the energy secondary may find use in devices. The force fielders could also shift the secondary focus a bit by taking dark blast, rad blast, or sonic blast instead of energy blast.
Personally, I would choose to keep it as listed. I have had the unique experience of, one time many months ago, putting a pick-up team together consisting of nothing but energy blast users. Seeing a coordinated volley of eight Power Blasts fire off and simultaneously demolish a boss, still ranks among one of the cooler things I've witnessed in the game.
Name: Radical Banished Pantheon
Shard: Justice Villains
Overall Theme(s): All Masterminds, mostly Necro/Dark with some Robo/Traps.
Backstory: TopDoc of Buffer Overdose was looking for some magical types to make an Arcane Raid Teleporter for his high tech villain base (all the tech ones were too big). The Circle of Thorns woldn't do it, but he managed to find some younger Banished Pantheon Death Shamans who would.
The BP were impressed with Buffer Overdose and wanted to join. TopDoc did a few experiments, and determined that a large team of Necro/Dark Masterminds with a couple Robo/Traps on the side for Defense definitely qualified as a SuperTeam. (They needed the Robo/Traps for alpha defense and status protection.) They did a little recruiting for other technophilic Necromancers and necrophilic (or whatever) Roboticists, and went out to make a name for themselves.
Group Make-up: 6 Necro/Dark Masterminds, 2 Robo/Traps Masterminds. Everyone has Assault and Tactics. Everyone concentrates on team buffs and mob debuffs. Personal attacks are not needed.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: The Protector Bots (slotted for Defense before anything else) should be able to maintain bubbles on every henchman. All 62 of them. Add in 2 Force Field Generators for more Defense and status protection. Add in 6 stacked Shadow Fall for probably capped Invisibility, more Defense, and capped Energy, Negative, and Psi resistance.
Everyone has Assault and Tactics. Even the lowest Henches will be able to hit mobs, though the level adjustment may prevent them from doing significant damage versus much higher conned enemies.
Send in the Henchmen to open combat. The Dark MMs immediately follow with heals if needed, 6 stacked Tar Patch (Slow and -RES), and 6 stacked Darkest Night (-DMG and -ACC). The mobs run in VERY slow motion, wiff a lot, and take tons of damage when hit. /em dance till the henches defeat everything.
The team will have about 70 targets (chars + pets) at high levels. If mobs have the same limits on number of targets that players do, even the biggest AoEs will only hit about 1/4th of us. At mid levels, it will probably be safe to just Team Teleport the entire mass of us right into the middle of mobs. We'll have some Group Flyers in case we need to deal with flying threats or high Knockback mobs.
In PvP zones, it'll be a slaughter. We'll see everything, thanks to 8 stacked Tactics. Almost no one will see us, thanks to 6 stacked Shadow Fall. We'll teleport on top of people, there will be a burst of lag as our Henches attack, then we teleport on.
We started playing these characters last night. Anyone can join, the more the merrier. We're only level 8, so you can still get in on the ground floor. Just give a yell on the "Buffer Overrun" global chat channel for an SG invite.
=======================================
Most of the Tank Mage (see previous post) regulars hit 50 on Tuesday night. My Kin/Electric, Tanker Wannabe, was 193 hours old. It was a blast. Herding as many Invincible mobs as the agro limit allows, nuking all the time, standing in the middle of mobs as they uselessly flail at you.
The most amusing thing was in the Eden trial. At the end, we cleared the lake around the Titan, freed the heroes, and defeated the Titan. Then we got rushed by the rest of the room. That's a huge room with a lot of mobs. But we took them all down.
We'll play our Tank Mages from time to time, but we've moved on to the BP team above.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
Name: Antarctic Air
Shard: City of Villains/Justice
Overall Theme(s): Causing mass hypothermia in villains
Backstory: None
Group Make-up:
8 ice/kin corruptors
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations:
Key Powers: Speed Boost, Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Bitter Ice blast, Siphon Power, Siphon Speed, Tactics, Assault, Maneuvers, Ice Storm, Blizzard, Fulcrum Shift, Increase Density, Freeze Ray
Tactics: 8 corruptors hopped up on 7 speed boosts each, and so many damage buffs it scares me run around as one unit slaughtering everything as a single unit. Powers would have their recharge timers reduced to practically nothing, and unlimited endurance. Ice storm recharge fast enough to be perma, and will do nuke level damage when i7 rolls around. This group would easily destroy a Hero, and would likely be extremely hard to be killed in PvP.
Possible Alternative Group Compostitions:
5 ice/kin
1 ice/ff
1 ice/traps
1 ice/sonic
(If anyone would be interested in actually making a Super Team like this with me please send a PM, the thought of this is making my mouth water, btw flexible on team composition, was just giving an example of a super team, though al corruptor would be preferred)
When I made up Buffer Overdose (the villain version of Buffer Overrun), I considered using equivalent powersets to Tank Mages. Tank Mages use all Defenders, 4 Kins, 2 Sonics, and 2 FFs. The problem is that buff sets are Secondaries for Corruptors. You don't get Speed Boost till level 20, and Fulcrum Shift till 38. That's a long time to wait.
Your team would definitely need some sort of protection. I recommend about half protection, half Kins. You don't need more than a few Speed Boosts to have your END recharge faster than you can use it. And once you get Fulcrum Shift, 2 Kins can keep you damage capped.
FF isn't a Corruptor Secondary. I recommend a couple Ice/Colds. They fit the theme, and also cover everyone in ice. Add in one or two Ice/Sonics and you'll be all set.
BTW, I found out that the Protector Bot bubbles are very minor Defense buffs. I've seen some people say 3.5%. Silly me, I was thinking they were somewhere around regular FF bubbles. Oh well. In my Radical Banished Pantheon (RBP) SuperTeam above, the Protector Bots should be slotted for ACC and DMG, and only for Defense if there are spare slots. After all, they mainly go on Henchmen, and what Mastermind cares if his Henchmen bite it.
The RBP started hitting 12 last night, so it's time for the second set of pets.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
I love the
[ QUOTE ]
Name: Paragon High Knockback Club
[/ QUOTE ]
...but why no Storm Summoning? (Yeah, yeah, they couldn't stay in formation...)
I used to worship at the altar of no knockback, though not as much with my scrapper ('f' & 'tab' bound) as with my rad/dark, though he once ran with a 4 energy/ blaster, 2 kheldian (nova, natch), and 1 emp/energy team, which meant that anchors were pretty much knocked back along with everything else. But, like you say, it's because practically no one bothers to position themselves to make knockback useful (they shoot from where they were standing when they first see the target, then run forward if it gets knocked beyond range). If everyone would bother to choose their knockback angles with some care (at least as much as combat's chaos allows), then it wouldn't be hated so.
Superteam Idea (sort of cross-posted earlier), that's more of a Gedankenexperiment than anything else:
The Stand-Around Gang
A set of extremely lazy twenty-somethings, who aren't all that into "click" powers or running, really.
1 Stone/SS Tank w/Mudpots & Footstomp
1 Fire/Fire Tank w/Burn & Fire Sword Circle
1 Fire/Rad Controller w/Hotfeet, Cinders, EMP & Choking Cloud
1 Dark/Rad Defender w/Shadowfall, Irradiate & Neutron Bomb
1 Ice/Storm Controller w/Ice Slick, Arctic Air, Glacier, Freezing Rain & Steamy Mist
1 Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper w/Quills, Spine Burst, Death Shroud, Cloak of Fear, & Oppressive Gloom
Someone has Team Teleport. They all have Teleport Foe or Taunt for stragglers and snipers, and all but the stone tank have Acrobatics. They work from a very tight formation and teleport from center of a spawn, do their "work," and teleport to the next.
[ QUOTE ]
Alpha and mezzing. From about level 20 and on, it's really hard for a big team of all Rad Defenders. The mob alpha strike can frequently blow you away, even if you open combat with Radiation Infection (RI, a ToHit and Defense debuff). After all, you aren't going to affect every mob in a group unless they're pretty close. And if a single mez lands on the opener, perhaps from an undebuffed mob on the sidelines, down goes RI, and the second volley finishes them off. You can't turn down the difficulty enough to avoid this.
[/ QUOTE ]
Regarding the mez problem, my group has adopted a mez-first approach. How? EMP: possibly the best CC in the game.
We have two Illusion controllers. Group Invis recycles as fast as AM does, so when we gather for AM, we get our dose of Invis, too. This allows us to get right up close before the boom. The lead-off team member swaggers right into the middle of the target spawn** and hits EMP. Simultaneously (we've got the timing down), everybody else hits Enervating Field. Then we get to see the beauty of a controller's Fire Ball vs. mezzed and EF'ed targets... for each of our three controllers. Add Irradiate, Electron Haze, and other AoEs, and the spawn is dead is less time than it takes to read about it.
If there is a boss in the spawn, Cosmic Burst stacks nicely with EMP. Sometimes the Illusion Controllers use Flash + Blind. Either way, everyone's mezzed, and then everyone's dead. Next spawn, next EMP'er, rinse, repeat.
Granted, the only mez problems we had as a group were vs. Devouring Earth. Since moving to Peregrine Island, we encounter them infrequently. Your mez-first mileage may vary.
** Note: If the target is susceptible to damage from EMP (robots) and explodes when defeated (again, robots), the lead-off EMP is much more safely introduced from nearby, rather than in the middle of the group. This is experience speaking. 
[ QUOTE ]
By opening combat with Phantom Army every time, the mob alpha is wasted on it.
[/ QUOTE ]
We typically use PA only when we need to gather a group or when two spawns are close to each other. Sometimes a spawn looks nasty and we'll toss pets in first, but usually not. EMP does the job.
Also, for what it's worth, we typically don't need Radiation Infection or Lingering Radiation. The amped-up damage from the controllers finishes the spawns before they have an opportunity to shoot back or run. Those powers are reserved for AVs, for the most part.
Name:
The Citizen's Defense League
Shard:
City of Heroes
Overall Theme(s):
An altruistic organization founded by people who genuinely feel that "Gratitude is never enough," and that the super-powered heroes who constantly risk their lives to keep paragon safe don't deserve to shoulder the task alone. May in fact harbor sinister anti-mutant, anti-alien elements, but exists as a distinctive group because ordinary people, obviously, don't have superpowers, and just aren't in the same league as superhuman mutants, recipients of scientific or technological miracles, or ancient mystic powers.
Group Make-up:
<ul type="square">[*]All: Natural Origin[*]Blasters: Assault Rifle or Archery + Devices**[*]Defenders: Empathy** or Trick Arrow + Archery[*]Controllers: Mind** or Illusion** or Fire** + Empathy** or Trick Arrow[*]Tanks: Invulnerability* + Axe or Mace or SuperStrength**[*]Scrappers: Katana, Broadsword, Martial Arts, or Dark Melee** + Super reflexes or Dark Armor** or Invulnerability*[/list]*Character's first costume must include heavy armor, and try and avoid Dull Pain.
** Try to avoid taking Cloaking Devices, Regen Aura, Levitate, Telekinesis, spectral wounds, spectral terror, Hotfeet, Handclap, Hurl, Footstomp, Oppressive Gloom, Soul Transfer, Siphon Life, Dark Consumption, Soul Drain, Midnight Grasp. It's understood avoiding these will gimp many builds, so either include a few and build around the rest, or choose another set.
In other words, if you have doubts, the short list is:
Trick Arrow/Archery Defender, Martial Arts/SR Scrapper, Katana/SR scrapper, Broadsword/SR Scrapper.
Also avoid major movement powers where possible, especially including teleport.
Also try and have Leadership and Fitness Pools, stealth, and if appropriate medicine, presence, and/or fighting pool.
Combat Strategy/Power Combinations: Find things to fight that are particularly vulnerable to smashing or lethal attacks.
Costume, Names, Design Issues:
It is understood that everyone in the group is normal origin. As such, no huge builds, no rock skin, antennae, third eyes, horns, pointy ear heads, robotic arms, tails, and so forth and so on.
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
Name: Order of the Jet Moon
Shard: City of Heroes/City of Villains (redeemed Villains)
Overall Theme(s): An eclectic bunch of Wusha masters with decidedly Asiatic motifs, reliance on technology is shunned as a weakness or failure to master one's self. Experts in the paranormal, the Order's knowledge of arcane and paranormal lore is unprecedented. When the plebeian forces can't handle a problem, they call in the government Black Ops teams. When the Black Ops teams can't handle a problem, they call the Order of the Jet Moon. The Order IS a merc unit in the sense they will usually only work for payment, but this fee is only to cover the costs of maintaining the Order in their spartan cloister. Profits are for the weak minded and spiritually corrupt. The motives and circumstances behind each case they take are the primary factor in achieving approval.
Backstory: Rumored to have started as a cell of disgruntled ronin, monks, and shugenja in feudal Japan, the Order's initial purpose was to deal with problems in the remote areas the Shogun's armies didn't bother with. Their surprising successes against the supernatural eventually set them on the path that has seen the Order of the Jet Moon survive the centuries and become what they are today. Slayers and chroniclers of things that go bump in the night.
Group Make-up: Katana/SR scrapper, of course. Setup as per my Katana/SR guide that's floating around here, natch. MA/Regen set up with Crane, Axe, Storm, Eagle's, Dragon's, Cobra's, and Focus Chi. Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper specializing in Build Up'd area damage. Quills, Death Shroud, Spine Burst, and Dark Regeneration for big healing. Stone/Super Strength tanker with three slotted Swift, Rage, Mud Pots, Taunt, Earth's Embrace, and a maxed Rooted and Granite. Big engine of destruction, in other words, great for the sumo character. Ice/Storm controller with Shiver, Freezing Rain, Snow Storm, O2 Boost, Jack Frost, Lightning Cloud, and Ice Slick as key powers. Dark/Dark Defender with Fearsome Stare, Darkest Night, Tar Patch, Dark Servant, Howling Twilight, Dark Pit, Tenebrous Tentacles, and Nightfall as key powers. Fire/Fire Blaster with Fire Blast, Fireball, Fire Breath, Fire Sword Circle, Blaze (slot 2 Range), Blazing Bolt, Inferno, Tough, Weave, and Bonfire (three recharge to perm it) as key. Electrical/Electrical sniper set up with threeslotted Hover, Charged Bolts, Zapp, Lightning Bolt, Ball Lightning, Voltaic Sentinel, Aim, Build Up, and Tesla Cage as key (some Range on Cage, Voltaic, and Bolts to take them all out to ~80 foot strike range). All builds are assumed to have Stamina threeslotted by at least level 24.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: Tanker always leads the fight, draws the aggro, then Foot Stomps. Scrappers move in, with MA and Katana taking out bosses, and Spines maxing his/her area. Controller and Defender sling in control and debuffs to max effect. Fire Blaster sets up 30 feet away and drops Bonfire which he/she keeps up at all times to retreat into to lose aggro before opening up with Fireball, Fire Sword Circle, Fire Breath, and Inferno if needed. Electrical sniper summons Voltaic and stays 80 feet up frying stuff fast as able, especially physical resistant or hard to hit mobs.
Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: Costume should be REALISTICALLY!!! colored. None of this crap BLUE like we can choose for font, no one with any fashion sense at all really wears that. Think paler or duller colors. It should have a definite Asiatic feel. Bare chests and arms for males common, as are robes or gis for both sexes. Wusha, not catgirl anime. Think Crouching Tiger or House of Flying Daggers. Hakama, capes, cowls, masks, bandanas all encouraged. Aura should be light or at least not purposely clash with colors of your costume. People in ugly computer blue and ugly computer red costumes with bright green Auras will be shot. No oddly colored hair, either, though white, or a pale green if you're a poison character, are fine. Skin tone can vary, but most should be traditional human skin tones unless you've a damn good reason. ie: the Ice/Storm could be pure white with blue highlights and white hair if it helps the "ice priestess" feel. People with pink hair will also be shot, then hung up in Atlas Park as a warning. Names are where all the fun really comes in, a few good examples are Crazy Meteor Luo, Iron Foot Keng, Filthy Mantis, you name it. Obviously no copyrighted or trademarked names. Laaaaaaame...
Alternative Suggestions: Tanker could switch powersets around among any of them, except for Invulnerability/Energy Melee. Neither of those sets has a "mystic" feel about them at all, they scream technological. Scrappers could take any attack sets, as well as any of the Secondary sets, but again steer away from Invulnerability. The ones I've listed above will still look the most "Wusha" out of all the possbilities. Controller could alternately go with Fire/Kinetics as a "kinetic leech that channels heat" or some such, but the Primary/Secondary should have some tie in that makes sense. No Fire/Force Fields for example. Defender could go with any power sets. Even Rad/Rad makes a goodlooking "shugenja" combo, but again the Primary/Secondary have to have a tie in. Blasters should NOT have Assault Rifle or Devices. Very basis of the group runs against tech like that. Stick to Elemental sets and try to pair them to tie together thematically again. Ice/Electrical sets could be interchangeable as a storm lord, but no way would you see an Ice/Fire in a traditional Wusha setting. People master one aspect as their trademark.
Redeemed Stalkers, Brutes, Corruptors, Master Minds, what have you would also work very well on the team in place of others. If you're replacing a Hero AT though, keep in mind what the strengths you'll be losing are to the SuperTeam and try to duplicate them with whatever Villain combo you'll be bringing in. Kheldians would also fit in, but they'd have to be all Human form builds. Peacebringers would make decent Chi masters for the Wusha setting, and Warshades would make one awesome "demonic" character. You'd look normal til you flare up and crush the life out of something with dark energies. Alternately, if there's one of each, you can run them as Yin/Yang channeling identical twins.
Feel free ta use this! Be a lotta fun, but it's looking like a cold day in hell before I ever meet 8 people on Protector who could do this well. Apart from the tank, none of the other ATs are very easy to play to their max potential. Wouldn't seem right to me to get together a group to do this who's halfassed in any way.
So as of right now, I'm a ronin of one!
~Steel Crane~
"I'm flying free with my beautiful butterfly wings!" ~ Randy Marsh
Name: The Vets
Shard: City of Heroes OR City of Villains
Overall Theme(s): Every player has a buffable pet. Every pet in the game that can be buffed/healed/damaged/killed and follows it's owner around is accounted for. Henchmen are not pets.
Backstory: We like pets. We cuddle up with them at night.
Group Make-up: There must be 1 of every buffable pet in every team. For Heroes, this means at least 5 Controllers and 1 Defender. For Villains, this means at least 4 Dominators, 1 Mastermind, and 1 Corruptor. The secondaries must in some way match their primary, and vice versa. (for controllers, empathy can match anything)
Mock Teams:
Ill/Sonic (light and sound)
Fire/TA (simply to light Oil Slick)
Grav/Kin (looks good together)
Grav/FF (forces)
Ice/Storm (water water everywhere)
Earth/Emp (starts with E?)
Dark/Electric (two pets, one unbuffable)
Dark/Dark (just cuz)
Plant/Psionic (starts with P?)
Grav/Energy (wanted all the secondaries)
Fire/Fiery (FIRE!)
Ice/Icy (ICE!)
Plant/Thorn (rose bush)
Necro/Dark (darkity dark)
Robots/Dark (Assault bot)
Dark/Dark (just cuz)
Blasters: None. Even Voltaic Sentinel does not count. nor does Auto Turret.
Controllers: All except Mind. Storm Summoning doesn't count. Any Secondary.
Defenders: Dark Miasma only. Any Secondary.
Scrappers: None.
Tankers: None.
Brutes: None
Corruptors: Dark Miasma only. Any Primary
Dominators: All except mind. Any Secondary.
Masterminds: Dark Miasma only. Any Primary, henchmen out with pet = OK
Stalkers: None
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: All are required to take Recall Friend and/or Team Teleport. This will allow placement of their pets. Pets are their primary source of damage and must be on or near the front line of battle. Having a mix of support powers on the team helps in every way possible. Empathy spams their auras, Radiation keeps as many toggles going as they can, etc. Masterminds must use their henchmen to tank for the other pets.
Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: Costumes are liberal, whatever best matches their pet. Illusion should get starburst aura and a costume to match the Phantom Army, even if they don't take it. Fire should try to be as monkey like as possible, yellow fiery aura. Earth will have stone skin and take the Earth Mastery APP. Gravity... that's a tough one. Ice, light blue aura, can even be fire. Dark, Tendrils aura, black or dark grey.
Alternative Suggestions: Can easily get away with some of the other pets. Blasters and Defenders can have Voltaic Sentinel. Blasters can get away with Devices. The melee AT's are out though.
Can it work? Definately. Will it happen? Not likely.
I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I am interested in playing with a Super Team like one of the ones mentioned. I am open to anything really, I just enjoy playing with a tight group of people on a regular basis. And it's just too cool to see a group of 8 with similiar costumes.
I once did a (short-lived) team called "Men in Black". Obviously, they all looked identical with black suits and ties, with shiny boots. All their names began "Agent -", and it was hysterical watching people's reactions to our simultaneous calls of "We're here to clean up the streets!" Good stuff!
Below, I have written two possible Super-Team ideas. Both of these have been discussed before, and I have never used them in game. I am looking for people who'd be interested in creating one of these ideas on Guardian Server. I have 3 people from my SG interested, we're looking to fill out the rest of the group with solid players and play 1-2 nights/weekdays and a few hours weekends. PM or reply here if you want more infor or want in!
Possible Super Team Configurations
#1: Super-Team Alpha Strike (AS)
Alpha Strike (AS) uses extreme amounts of DoT as well as the ability to keep ALL team members at the damage cap to tear through missions, mobs and levels. Here is a good team make-up:
Team Memebers:
1. Fire/Kinetics controller
2. Fire/Kinetics controller
3. Fire/Fire Tank
4. Fire/Fire Tank
5. Fire/Fire Blaster
6. Kinetics/Dark Defender
7. Spines/Dark Scrapper
8. Spines/Dark Scrapper or Fire/Fire Blaster
Explanation:
Look at all the AoE DoT options in this group! With everything burning, nothing will stand for long! The other positive here is that the negatives of I5 and I6 nerfs for the fire tank are mitigated by the controllers. For example, now that burn causes Mobs to run, once they are gathered around the tanks, the trollers can shoot off their AoE Immobilizes, and they are stuck in the flames. Also, with 3 kineticists, endurance concerns will be a thing of the past. Speed boost enhanced for END Recharge only will keep that out of mind. Also, once transference becomes available, even sappers will have a hard time sucking out all END.
Strategies:
Most members should take Leadership pool over fitness and travel power. Why? With multiple tactics etc. running, the damage and accuracy of all will be super buffed. So how do we get around? Two or so of these characters will get tp self and other to taxi the team. Again, no fitness thanks to SB and Transference. Look at all the slots and power possibilities you just opened up!
General Attack strategy:
1. Tank(s) taunt and cause mobs to bunch
2. Controllers immob/mezz to lock down
3. Kinetics hit Fulcrum Shift
4. Tanks/Blasters drop burn patches
5. Tanks/Blasters/Scrappers hit AoEs at damage cap!
6. Mop up the leftovers
Negatives:
The major negative I can see from this configuration is that heals, when necessary, need to hit to work. In the higher game, this should be no problem! Remember, mezz should not be a concern since KIN have mezz mitigation.
#2: Super-Team Detention Squad (DS)
Detention Squad (DS) uses the same strategy that the annoying ninjas in Chimeras world use. Slow, slow, slow and a little more slow is what this team is all (well mostly) about. Remember, every power in CoX that creates slow stacks with all other powers that slow! Take a look at the possible team make-up:
Team Members:
1. Ice/Storm Controller
2. Ice/Storm Controller
3. Ice/Ice Tank
4. Spines/Super-Reflexes Scrapper
5. Ice/Ice Blaster
6. Ice/Ice Blaster or Ice/Ice Tank
7. Warshade or Spines Scrapper
8. Storm/Dark Defender
Explanation:
Ok, almost everyone here has a slow aura or slow anchor power. Also, many attacks and/or AoEs will cause slow as well. Once the tank has jumped into the center of each group of Mobs, and the rest of the team opens up the slow powers, all baddies will be dropped to the 10% movement/attack basement. Talk about damage mitigation! Add to this the effects of the +Def of ice and SR as well as the leadership pool, and youll be rarely taking damage. At the same time, 3 Storm powered toons will mean 3 Freezing rains at once or 1-2 out permanently. You do the math, well be harder to hit and theyll be easier to hit. Once everyones buffed and the baddies are debuffed, in come the blasters/scrappers/Warshade to clean up the mess. Itll be cold in Paragon tonight!
Strategies:
Again, most characters will not take a travel power. Instead, leadership takes the spots. However, since there is little in the way of +End, it might be beneficial to take Fitness. I do not think that it will be NECESSARY however, for a few reasons. #1: Since our damage will be buffed by both leadership and Freezing Rain(s) we might be able to squeeze 1-2 End Redux into our more End costly powers. #2: With the damage buffs and d.res debuffs, I think most things will die fast! This is something that we could discuss as a team and decide on after we start.
General Attack Strategy:
1. Tank(s) taunt and hit the baddies with slow aura.
2. Controllers/Blasters run into melee with slow auras up.
3. Controllers/Tanks/Blasters drop Ice patches.
4. Storms drop Freezing Rain, controllers drop snowstorm on a Mob.
5. Everyone AoEs baddies in the FR and patches.
6. Mop up the leftovers!
Negatives: Storm only has Single target heals. Hopefully they wont be important, but in a fight gone bad, trollers and defenders might find themselves doing some switching between mates.
CoH 50s: Fire/Stone, MA/Regen, Fire/Storm, Stone/Fire, Fire/Rad, Rad/Rad, Kin/Sonic, Fire/Kin, Stone/SS, Stone/Stone, Kin/Rad, Spines/Dark, Inv/Axe
CoV 50s: Fire/Dark Corr
I was just thinking about Detention Squad
Two points that I felt should be addressed:
1. Immobilize will work for this team! Most trollers decide to forgo the AoE immobilize powers (I have skipped these on 3 of my trollers, but I did take it for my fire/ troller to go with flashfire) since they are somewhat costly and do not keep baddies from attacking. However, in this team, immobilize will dramatically help. For example, there will be multiple types of rain/ice/snow storms going off during a fight. Most of these location AoEs cause fear/flight in mobs, this can stink for the ice blasters since they do not get ultimate effect from the blizzard/ice storm. With a group of mobs immobed
the ice will be allowed to rip through the groups.
2. Some people may feel that the blasters need more AoE damage output. Using the method stated above I dont think this will necessarily be true. However, if a team feels like they could use more big damage punch, here are some suggestions. Most of the important slow powers associated with blasters are in the /ice secondary (these being chilling embrace and shiver (ice patch cant hurt either)). If the team feels like they can get enough slow from the other attacks (and theyll be right to think this) then that leaves all the primaries available to the /ice blasters. For synergy purposes, ice/ could be picked, but theres no reason any of the primaries couldnt be utilized. (Eng might be difficult however as it may knock mobs out of slow auras, but you get the idea.) The team could decide to go Fire/Ice blasters, and maybe even Ice/Fire tanks to go with a hot/cold theme.
Just some things to think about.
CoH 50s: Fire/Stone, MA/Regen, Fire/Storm, Stone/Fire, Fire/Rad, Rad/Rad, Kin/Sonic, Fire/Kin, Stone/SS, Stone/Stone, Kin/Rad, Spines/Dark, Inv/Axe
CoV 50s: Fire/Dark Corr
Just a quick update on the Midnight Avengers Super-Team:
We have decided to form a Slow based team similar to DS stated above. The name of our group is probably going to be the Arctic Avengers. We have a 4 person team right now. Heres the make-up:
1. Ice/Ice Tank
2. Ice/Storm Controller
3. Ice/Ice Blaster
4. Ice/Ice Blaster
As of last night, we had all reached lvl 8. I didnt figure on updating this strand till we had reached our 20s. However, even at this low level, the group synergy is working like a charm! I run the tank of the team, and am responsible for taking the alpha. As such, Ive had to focus on the defenses first. Im not a quick killer. Frozen Armor is 4 slotted already. What I have found is that even with me plinking away with fists and ice sword, I dont run the risk of death even against yellows and oranges. Heres how a basic fight works:
I jump into the middle of the mobs. They all hit me with alpha, and then are slowed by chilling embrace. The ice storm follows me in with arctic air on, then drops snow storm on a mob then BoI that mob so we dont kill it. At this point, the attack rate of the mobs is really low. Another added bonus of arctic air is that the baddies get confused on occasion, which makes them attack us even less. At this level we just plink them to death, hopefully when we hit 12 and 16 and the blasters get their ice storm and the stormy gets freezing rain, the speed will pick up.
For fun, we killed all of a group of hellions except for a chopper. I timed his attacks on me. It took a little over 30 seconds for him to attack me twice! We just sat there and looked at each other while his axe power recharged. My embrace taunt kept him from running, and all the aura slows just kept him from attacking. I wasnt sure how well the soft hold of slow was going to work, but it sure looks like its going to be just fine.
What I would like to see happen at this point is for us to be able to pick up a Spines/ scrapper and an Ice/Kin or Ice/Storm controller. I wouldnt complain about adding a kin/ or storm/ defender either. If you are interested in joining up, we play on Guardian in the evenings EST. My toon is Arctic-Knight. PM me here on the boards or look for me in game. Its fun in the freezing cold!
CoH 50s: Fire/Stone, MA/Regen, Fire/Storm, Stone/Fire, Fire/Rad, Rad/Rad, Kin/Sonic, Fire/Kin, Stone/SS, Stone/Stone, Kin/Rad, Spines/Dark, Inv/Axe
CoV 50s: Fire/Dark Corr
Name: Fire Fighters, Inc.
Shard: City of Heroes
Overall Theme(s): To Fire Damage and DoT anything and everything. This is actually based on a team I saw in the early days of I1.
Backstory: Back in the days of Launch, I happened across 8 fire/dev blasters tearing up Perez Park. While I was watching, they jumped from level 7 to 10 in about half an hour. I think the idea is still a viable one today, and could be done even more effectively with some tweaking.
Group Make-up: The team makeup with be as follows:
(6) Fire/* Blasters. Each blaster would be required to take Fire Blast, Fireball, Fire Breath, Rain of Fire, Blaze and Inferno. Blazing Bolt, Aim and Flares are optional. Secondaries can be anything, but recommended are /dev for mitigation and /eng for the early buildup. /fire could work too (obviously), but the early levels of that particular secondary make it less than appealing.
(1) Fire/Fire or Fire/Inv tank. While not as effective as it used to be, fire/fire is still a strong tanker build and can be used to drawing aggro and mitigating damage away from the blasters (though, if this works as it should, the tank should have little to worry about). Blazing Aura is a must.
(1) Fire/Kin Controller. Fire for the obvious reasons; aside from conceptual reasons, Fire/ for controllers is a strong primary with pets and other goodies. /Kin works well to synergize and boost the powers of each of the other teammates.
Power Pools: Fitness (Swift/Hurdle, along with Health and Stamina, are a MUST), SS (Though you can't perma-Hasten anymore, makes for a great team round-robin when you have two people activate it at a time. When the first two lose the charge, have the next two grab it, and so forth), maybe Flight (for Hover as well as Flying in formation, a cool look for anyone).
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: Burn, burn, burn. Opening with BU/Aim/BoF/Fire Breath/Fire Ball, then laying down several RoF's would virtually decimate any even or +1 mobs without a second thought. Add secondary abilities like ice patch in /ice or caltrops in /dev and you've got a serious beatdown coming down on your enemies. Following the chain with Blaze and Fire Blast will take care of most enemies, and for those with real chutzpah, try unloading six Infernos at once. Fire/ Tanks will be able to still draw enough aggro (with proper communication to the blasters), and the controller can buff, hold and occasionally heal when necessary. This is not a passive group, but a very interesting, hopefully fast-paced one.
Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: My only suggestion would be a common color combination with a standard costume look (tights with a particular stripe, folded gloves and combat boots, for example). Variable depending on the tastes of the particular group.
Alternative Suggestions: You could hypothetically do this on CoV with Corruptors, Brutes and Dominators, but I've only seen it work on CoH. If anyone tries it on CoV, let me know!
Back after 18 months away!
The original SuperTeam guide was posted around a year ago this time. It was a guide about those special teams that group only with each other. Whose specific power and enhancement choices are geared to combine with their teammates to produce terrific results.
This guide thread is about putting forth ideas for potential SuperTeams. No one may ever play these teams, but it's always fun to imagine what a team can do when you gather together 8 dedicated indivduals.
Feel free to submit as many potential SuperTeams as you like. Here are some example items you may want to include.
Name: What is the name of the SuperTeam
Shard: City of Heroes or City of Villains or both
Overall Theme(s): A brief statement about the overall theme, goals, and purpose of the SuperTeam.
Backstory: Any statements about the backstory for the team (if any).
Group Make-up: A discussion about what type of ATs will make-up the team and their respective power choices. Imagine that the SuperTeam is played by 8 consistent players, making up a single team. What types of heroes/villains will each player use? What are their key powers?
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: How will the team behave in combat. What will be their usual strategies and tactics?
Costume, Names, and Other Design Issues: What does the team look like? How would you set up the costumes? Anything unique with names, colors, style?
Alternative Suggestions: Use this section to suggest different alternative routes the team can go in terms of powers and AT make-up.
Feel free to discuss any posted SuperTeam ideas. If you like an idea and want to change it, feel free to repost it with the same name with something like "version 2" or "(alternate)" after it, and your additional ideas.
There really isn't a right or wrong to SuperTeams. Some players love the effectiveness of SuperTeams, to them everything is about how quickly experience is gained, how fast they can steamroll an invincible mission, and how many seconds it takes to drop the nearest archvillain. To others, it's about the style, the costumes, the roleplay possibilities where gaining experience quickly isn't nearly as important as looking cool while doing it.
I consider myself a mix of both worlds. I started running unique teams because I enjoy the effectiveness and pulling a team through impossible odds. But after climbing the advancement ladder more than a few times, I just don't have the same need to do it extremely quickly any more. So I also like to explore more unique teams that you don't see everyday, staying in search of the next novel experience.
Anyway, with that part of my bias out the of way, I'll start it off with the next two posts with two teams that both explore two areas that many players have never had the chance to explore. Near all-melee teams and disorienting effects.
Tons more to come, I'll be back with others in the future as I write them up.