After GR: Expected AT demand increase on teams

Just looking at the various replies in this thread alone, I would say that no AT will be that much favored over another, generally speaking.

Each team leader will bring his/her own biases (Corr vs. Def, etc.) but the AT passed over by that leader will be picked up by another who wants him/her more than the one chosen by the first leader.

So while this is a rather nice intellectual exercise, the concept really isn't anything to worry about. I'm hoping that others don't start to take the discussion too seriously and start crying "doom" for defenders, etc.

I know it won't change for me post-Going Rogue. In non co-op and co-op zones alike I'll see if I need damage, aggro management, or support. Some ATs can do more than one of those but it matters to me not who joins, so long as they are active in their role I've recruited them for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acemace Co-op zones were also supposed to bring about an AT apocalypse, mostly for Tanks, and that hasn't quite panned out. So I also doubt there'll be any sea change in player choices after GR.

/agree'd

I'd have to agree that very few will 'replace' other archetypes. People will, however, try new options.

I foresee a huge boom in masterminds, many of which will be badly managed, and thus making them less palatable blueside.

"Alpha male" tanks, the ones who demand all buffs/aggro/attention, will be become brutes. The buffs they get will make them just as tankerly, and they'll love smashing the mobs they herd.

Dominators might get play time by controller players wanting offense, and want to be appreciated for control rather than being invited for heals they may or may not be capable of giving.

I have dim hopes of what scrappers will do to stalker populations.

I submit that blasters will be very popular redside.

......but though I love defenders as my first archetype, anyone with an ounce of sense will make a corruptor. Sorry, but the suport disparity is slight, and they can just plain assist more damage-wise, especially versus AV's and such.

I'd expect Corruptors to eclipse Blasters before Defenders. Sure, a Blaster "adds" +10 to the team's damage output...but a Corruptor still adds +7 and multiplies the team total by a factor of 2.
Even saying that, while there may be some fluctuation, I doubt any one AT will "die" as some of the more...excitable people seem to suggest when they create topics like these.

I think it wont be so much different, just more options, you will generally take whats available for the most part.

As for corruptors vs defenders, in general I think I'd take the defender first if I didn't know the person for a team, more likely to get a player with a team oriented mindset and not a pew pew pew one.

My Huntsman rocks solo. I can only imagine what she'd be like with multiple stacked buffs coming from other VEATs.

While I feel that tanks and defenders are very valuable to teams, I would think that some tanker players would switch to brutes since they are easier to solo, and that some defender players would switch to corruptors for the same reason.

I disagree with the original post's suggestion that brutes might replace scrappers because maintaining fury, especially on a team, is a PITA. I'd much rather play a scrapper.

It's not so much that some ATs will be avoided when forming teams, it's that some ATs might be created less, I think.

I think... it won't make one damn bit of difference. Some people are still going to insist on taking a spreadsheet to their team to optimize dam/sec/end/nostril/inf. Others are going to play for fun, with whoever else is playing and isn't a complete nit.

The only difference I'll be making is having more doms blueside. I love my controllers - but I love doms at least as much, and I play blueside a bit more these days. Having the choice between control/(de)buff and control/damage regardless of side is going to make my year.

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I really don't anticipate a shift in recruiting priority for teams. Many (but not all) Hero teams will still operate according to a rigid set of party role requirements, but with a couple new ATs that can fill each role (Brutes & MMs can tank, MMs, VEATs & Corrs can support, all villains can DPS). Many (but not all) Villain teams will stick with the old standard formula of grabbing whoever and whatever is available and overcoming obstacles with big chunks of overwhelming but poorly coordinated damage rather than planning out any kind of coherent strategy, but with the addition of the two most damage-focused ATs in the game (Blasters and Scrappers) and other characters who don't necessarily count Damage Dealing as one of their primary functions like all Villain ATs do. Both sides will see some increase in flexibility, Hero Side much moreso because the migration of players seems far more likely to flow from Red to Blue than the other way around. But overall styles will likely remain consistent.

What seems far more likely to me than team recruitment requirements changing is a change in what actual ATs are being played. I've got a few ATs I anticipate never playing again, once I have the option to pick something from the other faction that better fits my playstyle, but that's a matter of personal taste. Game-wide, though, I'd bet on a significant drop in Defenders in favor of a huge boost in Corruptors, and Heroic Masterminds becoming as common as any of the native Hero ATs. Brutes, I foresee catching up to Tanker numbers, but not to Scrapper numbers. Stalkers and Dominators, I don't imagine changing popularity much in either direction. And Hero ATs moving to Villain Side, I anticipate being extraordinarily rare. The one AT I'd bet on making a big leap from Blue to Red, surprisingly, is the Warshade... but that only in the RP community, where I've talked to a lot of people who are still disappointed Nictus weren't the VEAT.

I don't know. I could see stalkers being popular on the hero side -- but only if they have Recall Friend and/or Assemble the Team. On the assumption that heroside isn't going to get our most experienced stalkers, it's going to take hero stalkers a while to learn that they actually can scrap, and that Demoralize is a heck of a debuff. Until then, all anybody's going to want them for is stealthing TFs.

I'm pretty confident that no villain team will want a blaster. An aggro magnet with no self-preservation abilities, on a team that has no tanker and no healer? That'll be really unpopular. I also can't see any hero team willingly taking on a corruptor, who they'll see as a half-strength defender who's too busy firing his half-strength blaster attacks to actually heal, buff, or debuff. I also suspect that masterminds will be really unpopular on hero teams, because hero players with really cheap graphics cards have been able to get by until now, but the first time a thugs mastermind fires Gang War, or the first time a level 32+ roboticist's droids fire all their attacks at once, cheap graphics cards all over hero-side are going to explode.

Tankers are going to be really popular on villain-side teams, though. Someone who can take a pounding even better than a brute can, who can even absorb an AoE pounding without losing all his damage resistance (unlike a mastermind), is going to be really popular for soaking alpha-strikes, a role that villains really don't have yet. And when stone tankers find out that about the level they get Granite Armor, */kinetics corruptors with Speed Boost are not uncommon, they're going to think they died and went to tanker heaven.

wihtout reading all the responses I don't think this will happen. If that were the case there'd already be evidence of it on teams in Co-Op zones and that doesn't really happen. People will mostly choose a team to get the job done, and will choose members accordingly - the players will self-select depending on what ATs they have available which is determined invariably by their playing style and preference and not what's most popular/needed.

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Listen to LFM broadcasts a little and you'll notice people tend to ask for specific roles rather than specific ATs. If the role requested is BuffDebuff they sometimes go on to specify the powerset they want as well.

You see things like "ITF LF3M, damage would be nice" or "LGTF LF Kin" a lot. They probably won't care if you bring a defender, controller or corruptor as long as it has kinetics. "Mission team LF Defender" is less common. I doubt if any archetypes will fall out of favor the way people say they will.

"Bring anything you like" is still the most common out there, even among the minmaxing top DPS crowd. (Narrow-minded people might have some trouble comprehending this fact, but an interest in character optimization doesn't automatically make one highly selective when it comes to team composition.)

GR AT expectations?