Team Invince


American_Knight

 

Posted

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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.


 

Posted

Five waves total. We took out the first one without any problems, but with no stamina at this point, we were not fully recovered for the second and got a team wipe out of it.

That ambush ran into the room, except for a couple of stragglers, then the third wave came. As we laughed about it, we wanted to see if they would keep coming, and we got a fourth and fifth wave. So that screenshot is of the last four ambushes, plus the mob group that was already there. At least five Longbow Wardens in the group.

I have to say COV missions are much more interesting than COH. I don't recall ambushes in any of the stuff we ran, and we ran all but two Task Forces and one Trial on COH side.


 

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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.


 

Posted

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.


 

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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.


 

Posted

That's one of the things I do think CoV does better than CoH. Map variety.


 

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Yes the unique maps in COV do make things more challenging at times, I would like to see them do more of that on the COH side, at least for the story arcs.

Tonight, we got the strikebreaker badge, and then we started the Silver Mantis TF , the first three maps were nothing special, but we finally had some +3-4 mob groups.

The constant ambushes really kept things exciting. Had a few defeats, but no team wipes. We had a lot of fun running those missions due to the constant fighting, and that of course really helped our leveling speed. Maybe Overboard has the XP per hour rate.

Many of us started getting impatient if we weren't constantly fighting, especially the dominator. I think we all hit 24. With three missions to go, I suspect we will all hit or come close to 26 off of this.

Looking forward to the last mission at the Sky Raider sea base.


 

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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.


 

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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.


 

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There were some bosses, but no where near as many as we usually see. The Sky Raider base was still a fun final map with the constant fighting. I think the hero team would have had a tough time recovering as well since when the AV attacked we were being attacked from 3-4 sides.

The temp powers from the mayhem missions have proven to be extremely useful, and I think we are going to really miss the group teleport power when that expires. I also got a lot of use with the jet pack from the AP Mayhem if I fell off the top of the skyraider base.


 

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There were some bosses, but no where near as many as we usually see. The Sky Raider base was still a fun final map with the constant fighting. I think the hero team would have had a tough time recovering as well since when the AV attacked we were being attacked from 3-4 sides.

The temp powers from the mayhem missions have proven to be extremely useful, and I think we are going to really miss the group teleport power when that expires. I also got a lot of use with the jet pack from the AP Mayhem if I fell off the top of the skyraider base.

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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.


Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!

 

Posted

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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 ...


 

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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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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.


 

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Yes, I really hope the next Strike Force will be a challenge. Its one, that we have no experience with, so not knowing what to expect should make it interesting.

Last nights session was kind of disappointing. Even on relentless it felt like it was on easy mode. Would really like to see an option to generate +4-5s. Currently the pace feels faster than on heroes, but I think thats due to the Fury Fever and Domination Overload. They don't like downtime, which works for the rest of the team too.


 

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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.


 

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The only solution I've ever found to an NPC dying when you were supposed to lead them out or lead them to something was to reset the mission. I'd rather just get a Mission Failed message the instant they died like you do with Objects you are supposed to protect.


 

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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.


 

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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.


 

Posted

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.


 

Posted

At least the fps bug was fixed. That was really slowing us down. Now we can actually all go to the next mission instead of having to log out and reform the team.

I do hope the TF/SF bug is fixed quickly. The next SF for us is at 35, which isnt to far away.


 

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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.


 

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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.


 

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Its disappointing, that there isn't more to do in the 30-35 range. By 31, we had run the two needed badge missions for ccolades, and the mayhem. Now we are forced to grind until we hit 35, and can run the next SF.

We had a similar problem in COH at 35 after the Numina TF, which doesn't award much XP(unlike the other TFs), which forced us to grind a couple of levels until we could all hit 39 for the Eden trial. Sewer trial was available at 38, but unable to be completed due to the reduced damage on the weapons at that level.