The "Perfect" team ?????

I'm sure you have all been on a team where the "leader" tries desperately to create, in his or her mind, the perfect team combination. "We need a Tank for Aggro" "I want a Kin so we all hit faster" "I have to have Scrappers and Blaster for huge DPS" The fact is any team with good players can succeed and thrive

Last night I put together a pick up team of available players to run the Positron TF. The team make was:

1 Warshade (and at that level no dawk Dwarf)
2 Defender (including a TA/Arch)
3 Controller
1 Scrapper (who had PC problems and crashed on us several times missing numerous mission)

No Tank for Aggro control, one lone DPS players and as I mentioned wasn't always around when the battles began, and a lot of players with Buffs, Debuffs, Holds, Immobs, and Slows. We managed to finish in 2:47 ..not a "speed" run by any sense but a very respectable time and we never had a serious problem during any misssion. I think m,ost people will agree that at that level COT are overpowering with Ruin Mages, Life Mages, Spectoral Demons, etc. Vahzilok hit for a huge amount of damage and their toxic damage can spell reallt trouble and the embalmed can spell "team wipe" when they explode. The fact was we were wiping out mobs so fast I don't think a single Embalmed Cadaver got the chance to explode.

We have Devices creating havoc, Psi damage, rad debufffing, Ice and TA holding and immobing and even RED bosses found themselves unable to move let alone deal any significant damage before they were face down. There is no "Perfect team and with good players at the controls any combination of AT can be successful.

I'm not saying a GOOD Tank, Scrapper, or Blaster isn't worth having. hey I have played more than one of almost ever AT to 50 level, for some reason I have never gotten a peacebringer past 10 level before deleting, but the "TEAM LEADERS" out that there pass on a defender because they have Trick Arrow, or pick up a BAD tank over a great Controller or Defender because "I need Aggro control are short changing themselves and the other players on the team based on a false notion that I MUST HAVE THESE ELEMENTS TO SUCCEED! The only thing any team needs is good players that can make the character they are playing excel.

I have countless examples in my 4 plus years of PUGing. A Citadel Tf with 6 Blasters, 1 Scrapper and 1 slightly bust Emp Defender.. our damage output was so high we moved through mobs too fast to take much damage ourselves. I helped take down Adamastor on a 4 man team.. 1 Controller, 2 defenders and 1 Warshade (me in Dark Dwarf tanker molde).

I agree completely.

Back when I first started playing, (Loooong time ago) it seemed that a team wouldn't even attempt to get rolling unless we had both a tank, and a empathy defender. Without those two things, most of my teams didn't want to do much.

Nowadays, I don't even really look at ATs all that much when I make a team. If they are at the right level, I'll toss them an invite. Some of the best teams I've been on were ones that you thought might never work.

It just seems that with the right players, and not so much ATs, any team can succeed.

I have been agreeing for years though some people just can't get their act together around other people who have certain sets, it's only sometimes those people with those certain sets aren't ideal.

Often I find that people build and play their characters to only function best around certain powersets and pretty much fail "at times" with others.

Also everybody has moments which I call n00b moments but some people just aren't trying or don't even look like they have fully supportive/cooperative intent but this says nothing bad of the set their playing.

When something isn't going to well then some formula of play could do with being devised. Someone may suggest this but there could be a player that doesn't like criticism, even if you hadn't been critical, it's criticism. Some people require all the diplomacy of the greatest known diplomat to get them to play in a way that works best for everyone.

Things could be bad so why not make use of an AoE immobs rather than expect a player to have a better heal rate? AoE immobs are useful to cut line of sight with most of the enemy group yet still have a target for AoEs. Then you don't need someone with a high heal rate and I rather someone on a controller playing a controller. I certainly didn't make a Mind/Emp to play as an Emp chasing idiots around a map.

I remember a 'half-PuG' Sister Psyche TF we were running in the long ago. There were two scrappers, two blasters, my SG-mate dark defender, my SG-mate FF defender, and my own Storm/Rad. After the second mission, I don't remember what the trouble was, the two scrappers quit. I think they were just milking the big outdoor maps of Freaks. The blasters were aghast. Could we continue? I suggested we try another mission or two and if it was too tough we would disband. That team instantly gelled and we had no defeats the rest of the way on our 'Cant Touch This' defender heavy team. It may be bragging but we were more efficient and faster without our melee teammates.

While I think it's a waste of time to try to gather the "perfect" team I also think a good team leader is able to assess which types of teammates will bring more to the current lineup. For every anecdote about unusual teams working out well, there are just as many about teams wiping or being forced to lower difficulty because they couldn't make it work. Depending on what the team is trying to do (radio missions versus a TF) varying degrees of scrutiny might be necessary for the team leader. I think it's waste of time to stand around and wait for the "perfect" 7th or 8th member, but I also think a team leader who pretends certain powersets and ATs don't bring more to your current lineup than others is fooling him or herself.

The lineup used in the particular example contains 5 support characters on a very low level Task Force. Support is king prior to level 25 or so. If we changed the lineup around to 3 Tankers, 2 Scrappers, 1 Gravity Controller, 1 Trick Arrow Defender, the TF would have been more difficult. Would it be do-able? Possibly, but it would be very annoying.

I think that it's quite rare you'll need a specific archetype, but I've run into situations where we needed to change the team's capabilities in a particular way, especially when archvillains are involved - I've had a few groups (usually small ones, just at the cutoff point for AV spawning) where there either wasn't enough damage to overcome the AV's defenses and regen, or there wasn't enough protection (including aggro management as needed) to survive the AV's attacks. These cases tend to be the exception rather than the rule, and when they do exist, the problem is less "we need a tank" and more "we need something to cut the incoming damage" (which tanks do quite well but not exclusively).

I am leveling my cold/ice defender in all defender team.
We are running +3 missions since level 6-7 without any problem.
TF seam to easy since we can not raise level of opponents.

Any team can work, but buffs/debuffs make things much easier.
All defender or defender/corruptors TF's are easy mode (although on ITF if no one have provoke, you might chase Romulus all over map 'cause he is so afraid of you ).

Perfect team? Eight controllers.

I was on a team on Saturday night which was 4 controllers and a defender : 1 bored Emp which was me (happily I am Plant/Emp so still had loads to do), 2 FF (1 defender and one controller) and 2 Kin Support sets. And some other guys of some sort, I forget what they were. Tanks or something, they started running off to other spawns after a while so they had something to do.*


I'd never understood the term Force Multiplier properly until then. Talk about God Mode. And this was only late 20s as well.

Perfect team? Teaming with players who know their toons, don't matter what kinda of mix.

The "perfect team"

6 defenders, 2 pity spots

2 tanks
3 defender/trollers
3 blast/scrap/kheld

Any powersets and with competent players behind the wheel will be able to take on 99% of gameplay.

I form alot of PuG's, and generally play support characters.
If I can get 3 or 4 "core" players I'll be set on filling the remainder of the team with any other AT.

By "core" I mean if im playin a tank and can find any 2 def/troller combos I can get selective on that 3 def/troller spot. If those first 2 support classes are debuff heavy, Ill use the 3rd support spot with a buff heavy AT.

With this set of "core" I start missions at +2 X8. Depending on the rest of the team composition, +3 and +4 difficulty usually starts at the 2nd or 3rd mission.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

honestly my perfect team is one that works well together

for tf/sf and such, the only sf that i actually care about team build is barracuda sf (since it is pivotal in the fnal battle), i will at minimum try to get a mm for that and if nothing else i can just use one of mine since without a mm reichsman i extremely difficult or impossible to take down

How long did your team take to run the Positron ?

A properly put together team can do it in less than two hours, a well optimized small team around an hour and a half. I have even heard claims of less than an hour.

I can easily understand people not wanting to take excessive time to run a TF. At higher levels that may just mean having a dead person.

I just managed my first successful Master run ever last night. It was a Master of Kahn TF, with two tanks, two blasters, three defenders and one controller ran in under an hour. Not bad for a PuG.

Anyway, as for an ideal team? Me and seven friends. Or me and seven other people who know what they're doing with their characters. I have specific rules for the TFs I run, one of them being: Any build, any budget, no exclusions. Nothing is needed, everything contributes, and I can't stand a team nazi.

If I were to design the absolute best team I could? I'd say:
1. Tank that can hold aggro. He doesn't need to be particularly tough, the rest of the team will take care of that. He just needs to make sure the enemies stick to him like glue.
2-8: A variety of */sonic defenders. At least one cold, dark, and rad. Sonic would be nice to anchor that debuff on the tank. Kin not so much with only one melee player. Multiple sonic blasts to floor all the enemy resists.

2 Kins, 2 Colds, 2 Rads, don't care about the other two

Quote:

Originally Posted by EmpireForgotten Well...Item 2 leaves my SG out of the equation...

that didn't stop me and WELL from getting MoSTF on our Fire Tanks

I'm not sure why the OP even thinks a team with 5 buff/debuff sets should remotely have trouble. I mean, this is 2010, and RO has been breaking the game for how many years?

My favorite team of all time was 8 people who knew each other (some from RL, some from playing in game) who got together on Teamspeak once a week and played:

5xFire/Rad Controller
1xIll/Rad Controller
1xFire/Sonic Controller
1xFire/FF Controller

Hardly balanced, but it was completely ridiculous. STF @46 for xp; we pulled all the AVs pre-Recluse at once (accidentally), and just burned them down. We actually had to debate whether rigging up Task Forces for +5 or +6 mobs was best.