Task Force Question from an Old Player

I'm back with CoH after years away and loving it once again. But things have changed mightily. My day was not only before ED, it was before Contacts had phones.

So please help me catch up on three key questions about Task Forces:

- Are player levels still restricted, now that there is Sidekicking?

- Are there pre-level 20 Task Forces I could consider? I loved Positron's, but it was long (and frequently underestimated, which made it longer as people rushed into, well, wiping).

- Can teammates be added partway through a TF? In the long ones (again, like Positron), it was painful to lose players after a few hours and be unable to replace them.

If the answers you're getting don't thrill you, consider running some story arcs instead of a full fledged TF/SF. If you head to the Hollows, the storyline and contacts all run within that zone, and tell a cohesive story. Additionally, any villain contact tells a cohesive story, and they are actually some of the best in the game. They let you invite more/less people, and while the others wouldn't get any special rewards for the arc unless they had the same missions themselves, it can still be fun.

I recommend the Unlockable Contacts in particular. They have some really interesting stories. In fact, I tend to think of the first one, Veluta Lunata to be the villain equivalent of a lowbie Task Force.

It's pretty easy to get a group working together to get the Pirate Badge, then go to the contact and run her missions together as a group. You get the badges for Ghost hunting, and her arcs have some cool temporary powers as well.

And Cavern of Transcendence is 12-15.

Good tips, thanks! I'll look at Cavern of Transcendence, which is new to me, and at story arcs.

Are there story arcs that lead to useful bonuses for a new (meaning, well, poor) player? My build has to rely on DO's and SO's, as that's all I'll see for some time.


One benefit of a good TF that may be hard to capture in a story arc: it can make for especially challenging play.

I've been teaming in a lot of short missions this weekend, and it's good fun, but each team really runs through the mobs, and we've never needed much in the way of strategy.


As I recall, Positron was, for many players ,the first time they actually had to coordinate tightly, to plan their pulls and holds. It rewarded teams willing to talk for a few seconds before each fight, and I liked that tension. It was always tempting to rush, but with little room for error, the Task team felt more like a team than a loose collection of players.

I think everyone has answered your questions already but here are a couple of links I use when trying to organise a Task Force/Trial for my SG:

The various trials both villain and hero

All the task forces

All the strike forces


They list all the levels and rewards etc. I would think there have been a few added while you've been away

Edit - Oh and I totally agree with what you say about TFs being generally harder than arcs. I remember doing the Positron TF a little while ago on a team made up of all lvl 10s bar one 15. Took us two nights to finish but was definitely a challenge because of the mix of mobs and the automatic spawning of lvl 15s because it is a named TF!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger Quote: 16. Has Paragon Studios redefined "player" to require your mouse to subscribe separately from your keyboard? If your mouse has greater processing power than your gfx card, the answer is yes.

If you're looking for bonuses, make sure you do Radio Missions and the subsiquent "Bank/Safeguard" missions (you'll get a Safeguard misison after about 3-5 "radio" missions. To get a radio, see a Detective that's assigned to you whenever you enter a zone. You can only do radio missions in a zone that's compatable with your level range). Each Bank mission has: an exploration badge, a long-durration temp power (like a jetpack, +regen, self rez, etc), and there are side missions which you can do, one of which is "Stop a weapon's deal" where you can get a random temp power.

Additionally, with Story arcs, MOST will reward you with Merits upon completion, which can be redeemed for recipes and enhancements.

You may also be interested in accolades. Accolades are awarded when you achieve a collection of badges (defeat, exploration, and history badges from reading plaques). Some of them grant some nice buffs, such as +HP and + End, but there's a few other goodies, too. Check them out here: http://badge-hunter.com/view_badge_bytype.php?type=5

And depending where you look on the market, IOs can be easy to get. Some sets are very cheap, while generic IOs from people getting the crafting badges will flood it every now and then.

Check out the links in my sig and especially this one:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Issues

What a terrific set of advice and info - thanks!

Tired, thank you for the Trials links, and Steele for the explanation of Radio missions. I'll start them today.

This is exactly what I needed! There are good guides here for specific AT builds and strategies, but what I lacked was a sense of 'How to Get Stronger, Even as a Newcomer.' Now I have specific missions and boosters to seek.

This is a big help, thanks.

New question: yesterday, I did the Synapse TF, which I believe is now levels 20-25 (back in the day, it was higher, as was Positron). Our Group Leader was 20.

When we began, all the enemies were 27... too much for us to handle. How did that happen?

Assuming the Leader had his difficulty settings at +2, does that mean the TF runs at a base of 25?

We began again with a new leader, level 50. That bumped him down to 25 (and me to 24), with enemies at 26 (his settings were +1), much more achievable.

If the TF base settings are always at the highest level of the range, that makes it important to have a leader at or above that level. If not, what else do I need to know about how the level of enemies is set?

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Task_Force
More specifically, the part that says:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Welcome back to Paragon, CB_GB!