Can someone explain how the LRSF is balanced?

Ok, so;

8 man team. Steamrolled everything up to the last mission of the LRSF. Kronos Titan? Floored. Slinger? Floored. Vindicators? Floored.

Last mission.
How is it, that such a well done SF can end on such a...a cheap note? It really is just that. 8 or 9 Heroes, set at perma level 53.
Now, this might just be opinion, but surely there is a difference between 'Challenging' or 'Very Hard' and 'Not actually possible without all 3 Warburg Nukes, Shivans and a specific team make up'?

If this was a random PuG, maybe it wouldn't taste so bitter. Even then, it will still cheapen the whole thing, that the last mission is basically a lolGank fest, that doesnt so much challenge as just push the difficulty through the roof.
But this was a team of some very good palyers, with very tough characters. We did all the right things. And we just got flattened.

At least I understand now why people were so immensley hacked off when the difficulty settings made -1 work for MO runs. Because that isn't challenging, thats just...
Words fail me.
And my inner game designer screams 'Cheap'.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Also keep in mind that it rewards less merits than the STF (thanks to the powergamers and merits don't incorporate the average failure rate, which I suspect is much, much higher than the STF), and that the tech in mission 1 hasn't been fixed since Issue 7.

If you were expecting some deeper meaning, there isn't; complaints like yours, logical and flame alike, were flooding the forums when it was released.

What Vega said. The LRSF used to be hard.

I haven't been on a run that failed in over a year and a half.

And in all that time I've seen extra items like nukes and shivans used once.

In fact many times teams have pulled MULTIPLE of those stupid AVs and still won.

The LRSF used to be hard.

I've also been on runs where the sf is run so fast it makes your head spin.

The LRSF used to be hard.

However, no it's not really balanced. It was never meant to be. Which was and is still one the main complaints about it when compared to the stupendously easier STF.

I think the possibility that devs hate Villains should be considered.

I was gonna say we did one last night with w/e toons we could find. It wasn't the easiest one I have ever done; but, we finished in just over an hour.

IIRC, we had a MM, three corrs, a dom, a VEAT, and a couple of brutes. We were just the first 7 people who said, "Yeah, I'll do a LRSF". [The eighth was the one who asked who wanted in a LRSF]

So, it doesn't require shivans and nukes. I'm sure they don't hurt though. I've never been on one where everyone had them, but I have heard about them.

LRSF is difficult, it's supposed to be difficult, there's already way too much 'easy' content in the game.

It's challenging, but not imposible if you know how to play the game *shrug*

Rule 1 for the final mission of LRSF - everyone must be defense soft capped before encountering the Phallanx. It doesn't really matter how you get there - vengence, purples, forcefields, -tohit, whatever. But the whole team needs to softcap.

Second Rule of LRSF - You must, MUST, have a healthy dose of -regen. While I suppose 8 determined and crazy brutes could probably do it, save yourself the headaches and have a few sources of -regen.

Third Rule of RSF - Everyone attack one target and take out the buffers first. You'll want to take out Numina and Sister Psyche as fast as you can. After that people argue who the next biggest priority target is. My personal opinion is to go for whoever has the lowest health, unless they hit a "god-power" like unstoppable.

Final rule of LRSF - Everything else is optional. You don't "have" to have a stone brute, or a rad corrupter, or shivans, or vengence, or nukes or a single hero pulled. Sure, they are all great and helpful, but they aren't necessary. All you need is soft capped defense, -regen, and concentrated fire on one target at a time, starting with the buffers

I don't disagree with some of the sentiment of the OP, but two nights ago I ran one with a team formed from one of the global channels I'm in, and we ran the last mish as if it was a Master run. Now our leader was experimenting and not everyone followed directions, and death did follow, but we got back up and then beat down the full phalanx (the pull attempt got them all) with no nukes or shivans. Temps are definitely not required. On the other hand, good buffs and/or debuffs and smart inspiration use are going to help an immense amount, and IOs can certainly lower the bar on how many buffs and/or inspirations you need.

Edit: We did not have a /Stone brute.

You had to have been teamed with the worst players in the world for that to happen.

I'm really trying to think of a situation that a team with four corrs and two MM's along with two brutes could fail. You should have been able to breeze by that unless half of your team didn't have a pulse.

Some good advice here but I must agree with Alpha that the difficulty bump in the end is way to steep. You have no idea if your team can do it until you appear at the last mission. I am sure that at least half of the attempts fail miserably.

Personally, now I have the badge, I don't bother with that SF anymore.