Making the freedom phalanx harder than they already are will make a lot of people cry. I would find it a nice challenge, but I guarentee you a lot of people would cry.
The ONE thing I would absolutely love to happen is to have the freaking technician fixed. He has been stupid and buggy forever. Just make him spawn in the lab and be done with it!
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Making the freedom phalanx harder than they already are will make a lot of people cry. I would find it a nice challenge, but I guarentee you a lot of people would cry.
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The goal here isn't to make them harder. It's to make them reasonably beatable without relying on one of two specific strategies, and actually make them interesting to fight.
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For a TF that the vast majority of people complain is too difficult, I'm not sure why you want to buff the enemies to make it more difficult. That seems like heaping insult on top of injury.
I realize lowering their level would help a bit, but still, having to defeat 1 of the AVs, while the other heavily buffed ones pound the crap out of you would not be fun.
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For a TF that the vast majority of people complain is too difficult, I'm not sure why you want to buff the enemies to make it more difficult. That seems like heaping insult on top of injury.
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Hint: I'm one of those people. 
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I realize lowering their level would help a bit, but still, having to defeat 1 of the AVs, while the other heavily buffed ones pound the crap out of you would not be fun.
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If more needs to be done, I'm willing to listen. Make them EBs, but allow them to lean towards AV-strength due to the buffs?
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
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So they should fight more like one. Give every member of the Freedom Phalanx their own PBAoE team-buff power (ala Leadership).
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Um, no thanks. If any heroes/archvillains need of a boost, it's the Praetorians.
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Making the freedom phalanx harder than they already are will make a lot of people cry. I would find it a nice challenge, but I guarentee you a lot of people would cry.
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The goal here isn't to make them harder. It's to make them reasonably beatable without relying on one of two specific strategies, and actually make them interesting to fight.
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I don't play heroes as much as villains, so I'm not SO up on the specific strategies for beating the LRSF, but I know the most common is using a perma mind dom to sleep everyone but the 1 enemy you're fighting and take out the AVs one at a time. I believe the other strategy is to pull out a ton of shivans, use warburg mutagen nukes on everyone, and just bum-rush them.
The big problem is that your suggestions make the strategies that work harder, without making any other strategies easier. As it stands, it's nearly impossible to fight the AVs one at a time without using sleeps, and the fact that there are 8 of them makes fighting them all at once nearly impossible. Having them all buff each other would make fighting them all at once even tougher than it is now, and the status protection would mean you couldn't sleep them until you had taken at least 1 down while all of them were beating on you.
The big problem with it is that the game is designed so that a single even-level AV is more than a match for probably 95% of the characters out there. A level 53 AV even more so. And yet, as it stands now, without using sleeps to break them up, there's really no way to avoid having to fight all 8 level 53 AVs at once.
If you want to open up new strategies, either make it so that the phalanx can be split up and dealt with 1 or 2 at a time or reduce their level/rank, whatever, enough so that a team can take them on 8 vs. 8 and win without resorting to using shivans and nukes.
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Make them EBs, but allow them to lean towards AV-strength due to the buffs?
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Do this, tweak their aggro rules so it's easier to separate them, and I'm all for it. As it stands, it feels like the encounter was specifically designed to be impossible unless the team absolutely overloads with brute force (Shivans and nukes) or bashes their heads against the PToD with a Perma-Dom Mind/ and trivializes the encounter. Anything that allows for a great range of strategy is better than what we have.
We'll always have Paragon.
Just in the middle of filling my friend in on what the LRSF is like, I was inspired on how to fix it and make it more like the much more fun STF. So here we go.
)
Step 1:
Persistent Orestes Rifle
Let's start by fixing this completely ridiculous plothole. The entire point of the Orestes Rifle is to nullify powers granted by the Well of the Furies, yet for some absurd reason you use it on Ms. Liberty and then promptly forget about it, despite it being the most useful tool for bringing Statesman down.
So, upon taking the final mission from Lord Recluse, the team's Orestes Rifle gets recharged/re-granted. (Alternatively, increase the time limit on it slightly.) The Orestes Rifle will now actually affect Statesman, and tentatively completely remove him from the fight by draining his powers.
Step 2:
They're called the Freedom Phalanx
So they should fight more like one. Give every member of the Freedom Phalanx their own PBAoE team-buff power (ala Leadership).
Numina: Regeneration
Sister Psyche: Defense
Manticore: Accuracy
Positron: Perception and Damage
Synapse: Movement Speed and Recharge
Citadel: Status Protection
Back Alley Brawler: Resistance
These powers would potentially only affect their teammates.
One of the interesting parts of this approach is that it doesn't rely on any particular strategy or powerset to overcome their strengths. Depending on the team makeup, you could focus on taking out whichever Phalanx member threatens your team's weakness(es).
There would be an effective range on these, which would make Immobilize more useful, and you would still be able to use the Mass Hypnosis strategy, but to do so you'd have to take out Citadel first.
Statesman isn't left out here, which is part of why you want him nullified by the Rifle: Call to Arms, a super-buff that would basically make the Phalanx borderline-invincible.
Part of the fight is making sure Statesman stays locked down, and dealing with the potential "Five Seconds of Death" that occurs when he breaks free, but before being subdued again.
Step 3:
Cleaning Up
In order to make these changes a little less overwhelming, I'd maybe lower the FP's levels slightly once again, except perhaps for Statesman. They also might need non-standard AV resistances to prevent them from being too impossible (or to allow alternate strategies).
Once the other seven Phalanxers are downed, Statesman would become enraged, shrugging off the Orestes Rifle's effects and fighting with about the same proficiency as now. The idea here is to make this final drag-out fight equal to fighting Lord Recluse. Beat him, and you win.
Hopefully this would make the LRSF actually fun and engaging, rather than an exercise in frustration or elaborate powergaming. What do you think, sirs?
(Note, I'm quite interested in feedback, or opinions from more powerly scholars. I'm always interested in hashing things out further.
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!