Halloween a waste for > level 15 characters

I've talked to a few people online, some newer, some seasoned vets, some with more months play than I have (51), and we generally agree on this. When a level 9 regen scrapper continuously gets turned into hash while trick or treating, it really doesn't make it much fun. Never mind trying to do Zombie Apocalypse or the Mystic Banner Events. No matter how high our low level characters are sidekicked, we still can't do enough to survive, much less get the kills. When my level 5 blaster is auto-sidekicked to level 38, and his first blast power is only doing 23 points of damage, there is either something wrong with the sidekicking engine, or the monsters have stupid high DR. Using the sliding level scale on the Manage screen showed that a level 38 blaster should be doing at least 70ish points of damage with that attack, so I don't know what the deal is.

I got a friend of mine to start playing for the fun of Halloween, and he has decided to never play again because even with my help, the Halloween events just weren't any fun for him, because he spent more time at the hospital than fighting. Halloween was at least the second best holiday for us as kids. It's kinda sad that our 'kid' heroes get no fun out of it now.

Counterpoint...

I've been having a great time with my lowbies on the Halloween stuff. In fact, I have this Assault Rifle/Ice Blaster on Virtue who ended up being the first of all of my characters to have all of the associated badges (despite having only made her a couple months ago and despite having high level characters who have been around for well over 2 1/2 years).

That badge count includes all the different monsters from Trick or Treating, the 3 costume badges, Jack, Eochai, and the Unseelies, all Zombie invasion badges, and all the Banner badges (plus the two Banner temp powers that matter...Seduction and the Scare Bear Stare).

Soloing, it was a bit of a chore for her. But the several times she managed to get on good teams, Halloween was a real blast for her (no pun intended).


And the kicker is, she is only level 10, and will remain locked at 10 until after the Winter Event.

Several things:

1) Your sign is backwards. The sign shows greater than, and I'm pretty sure by context that you mean less than.

2) In some respects, I agree. The banner event, for instance, is a pain for low level toons trying to move around big zones. For really low level toons, the GM mechanism has always been a little wonky because you often do not have full attack chains or are on a character that has had to prioritize powers in an odd way. Most toons are somewhat 'gimped' early on simply by trying to cram everything in, not to mention the 5 power slots usually reserved to get a travel power + stamina by level 20. ToT-ing at low levels, provided you're actually fighting low level enemies, isn't too bad, except bosses can be a real handful for some groups.

3) 'Getting the kills' is meaningless in this game. You don't get anything special for being the one to kill something in a team/multi-user setting. You get credit like everyone else on the team, meaning that even if you aren't doing a ton of damage, the fact you are on that team sidekicked up means you still get credit and therefore badges, etc. Just join a team, don't sidekick way higher than yourself, and things work out well enough. I turned down an invite from a level 48 the other day on a level 8 Mastermind. That just isn't going to go well for that toon, and at best I'll be the 8th wheel on a steamroll team (at worst, I'll be perpetually dead). That's not my idea of fun. SSK'ing to 48 on a level 32 Mastermind, however, is a completely different story. You gotta be somewhat realistic with your expectations when deciding who to team with. The sidekick system is a nice idea, but it isn't without its own limitations (Halloween Event or otherwise).

4) As to your damage, what kind of Blaster was it? The damage resistance by type can make a very noticeable impact in this game as can the conning of the enemy you were fighting. You don't give anywhere near the level of detail necessary to tell you if your damage amount is suspect or not.

There are two points to consider:
1) The banner monsters can have stupidly high DR. The ghost-like monsters are naturally resistant to some damage types, and one of the banners (purple, I think) generates serious defense buffs.

2) Base damage scales nicely with level, but enhancements don't. I had this demonstrated dramatically during a recent zombie invasion. I was hovering about 90 feet up in Steel Canyon, one-shotting minions with Sniper Rifle, when I got invited to a team. I joined a team where the leader was level 14 (21 levels below me), and suddenly I needed to use my full attack chain (sniper -> slug -> burst) to defeat single minions. What had happened was that my IOs were reduced to TO levels, and my +100% damage boosts had been reduced to almost nothing.

I've got a couple of toons this has been giving me fits with, and I'm just talking ToTing. One's a 18th level scrapper (DB/Dark) and the other's an equal level Dom (Mind/Energy).

ToTing solo is quite the risk! All I need to see is an orange Vampire walk out the doors and I know the odds of me eating sidewalk instead of candy are at least fifty fifty if not an auto-certainty. I've been able to survive around a banner once (out of about five tries) with the Dom because the last time I tried a 50th level toon was hanging around too and healing.

The only thing I care about it the costume slot. :/

I only played one character this whole event which was my newly Claws/willpower scrapper The Flying One and he did quite alright ToTing and with the banners. Of course, endurance is a problem and he got his butt kicked a few times but all in all it was a great fun, good levelling and a second costume slot too. And also some extra salvage which I can sell.

Not saying there are any problems. But other people are much better at detailing those :P I don't even know what a proc is so...

You had a level 5 blaster for long enough to calculate the damage? Huh. What happens when you get SK'd up to level 38 on a normal mission, with Crey and Nemesis? What happens when you shoot at a Freak Tank?

Right.

I agree with Brophog. SSK is cool as long as it's within a few levels. When you take a level 5-10 and try to "help" a 35-50 team, well, there's really no "help" at all. I know from personal experience as i pl toons, they like to follow along my Fire/Kin and talk about how their 3 points of damage is really helping. (they're joking of course) If people wanna be "effective" they need to actually learn the game and how it works before thinking a really low level can enjoy playing and actually helping a higher team.

Why would a level 5 even wanna go to a 38 zone anyway? There's a reason that level 38's aren't in Atlas where level 5's are.

I feel like I've had great success ToTing solo with low level toons.
I've tried out all of my 24 alts, and there are definitely some that do much better than others, though. One of the best is my Lvl 20 Mind/En Dominator, which contradicts a previous poster's comment - maybe we have different playstyles or powers? I also did quite well with a claws/regen Scrapper, who went from about level 5 to 10 ToTing and a Thug/Dark MM who progressed through about the same levels. Worst was my Rob/Force MM (lvl 22) who got pwned by every baddie - they just ignored the Robots and went straight for the toon.
I messed around a little with zombie and banner events, but found them tedious and not good xp solo (no surprise there).

I've been doing a low 30's ToT team in Bricks the last week and we don't tend to die. Three of us are fairly regular but otherwise it's a pug. That said, I don't knock as I'm too squishy. I tend to get 7ish blocks of xp each night. Never leveling more than once a night. We tend to be an 8 person team, but I really prefer around four.

That said...

I won't ToT in Atlas. I died 10+ times at the same door with a team that should have been good. A level 4 tank gets slaughtered by the level 9s that come out the door and we can't run fast enough to escape the spirit one-shotting us.

I've Solo TOT'd with toons of varying levels during this years Event, and have found that if I'm in the Zone that is appropriate for the level of the toon, it's fun. I've been on Teams with these same toons doing the Banners, GM's, Zombie Raids, and still had quite a bit of fun. Lowest was a lvl 8 Archery/Trick Arrow Corr. I also had success with a lvl 11 Claws/Ninj Stalker.

While Perma-Faceplanting would be a bad thing to happen in any Event, I haven't found that to be the case. Did I die some? Sure, but I survived much more than I died. If it's not a challenge why do it?

My problem with the Events is the repitition. This is why I'm not much of a Farmer. After the 3rd or 4th run of the same Mish, I'm like Okay time to go do something else, I'm bored. After the 6th or 7th time I do something on a toon in an event, I'm bored.

I'd have to agree that solo ToT'ing can be very difficult for lower levels. I have several "lowbies" (sub 20's) that end up eating pavement 70% of the time when solo ToT'ing. And, yes, I am in zones appropriate to their levels. It's mainly due to failing to hit the mobs while they have very little difficulty hitting. And -hit/-rchg on a newbie is awful.

On a few occaisions, my wife and I would team up with our 7 year old. With the combo's we have, combined, we usually have little difficulty, even when we all hit the door at the same time.

Well level 5 is one thing, but I have been taking lvl 20-30 characters to PI and doing quite well. Then again these people have IO's or SO's. I have a ton of lvl 14-17 characters and I have not tried it with them for the specific reason that i might not be as effective and thus a 'drain' on the team. However, a good buff/debuffer could probably still be quite effective even at a lower level to such a team.

Okay, I appreciate that your perception of Halloween is that the event is not good for lower level characters, and your friend has the same perception.

I don't share your perception, but I agree that a lower character will probably have a harder time fighting the event enemies, traveling to the banner points, surviving the ToT mobs, than higher level characters.

I'm not sure how this is different from any other time in the game.

Lower level characters will have a harder time contributing to mothership raids, getting from pylon to pylon, etc.

Lower level characters sidekicked up will have a harder time traveling in Dark Astoria, surviving against mez-heavy enemies, taking on Praetorian AVs.

Sidekick up with the awareness that you might be an appropriate level now, but you don't have all the tools that go with it.

If your complaint is that the Halloween event forces you to participate in upper level situations, that's ridiculous. Have you and your buddy do regular content, and realize that what is happening in the game during Halloween is an Apocalyptic level event. If you only have lowbie characters, then I'm sorry. Combat will be difficult. Maybe roll a support toon, heals are good when SSK'd up, so are buffs, etc.

Most of my characters have done Halloween content, but only my level 3 tank has all four banners and the Mystic Aspect GM badge. I got it by being in Atlas, where the zone is small enough for me to travel across quickly enough. Was the XP great for me? No. Was the experience great for me. Yes.

I agree to a point Sun. Although you may be able join "pals" but a level 5 may be SSK to a level BELOW the team and/or mobs, i've yet to see a level 5 toon be "helpful" to a 30+ team. If you wanna call it PL then call it PL or "hanging out" but it's hardly a "help" to spam brawl at foes.

Now, take the same toon at level 20-30 and put on a 50 team, you see a different result as far as "effective" help. Why? You actually have powers to use to aid the fight. Just my thoughts.

Why is this OP even ion this board? It's not even a question.