Anyone else getting annoyed with Masters of runs?

Don't get me wrong I don't hate the idea and certainly don't discredit anyone that accomplishs the feat on any of the TF/SFs that offer it. I realize there are 50 level long time Vets looking for ANY kind of new challenge and a Master's run definately tests your skills. All that said there are some things about them that drive me a little crazy...

1) I just left a MoLGFT attempt that my 50 level SoA [Crab] had joined. The first little annoying aspect was that no one ever mentioned "this is a master's run" until we'd somehow managed to acquire 5 of the 8 players required. There are players out there, believe it or not, that really just want the badge, the merits and whatever XP, Salvage, Recipes, and Prestige they can get and really could care less about proving how tough they are doing a run with no temps and without the fear of being the "one that died" and ruined everything!

2) The loss of temp powers drives me crazy. I have 20+ that I EARNED or CRAFTED not to mention vet rewards, ect and suddenly I lose access to all of them so someone can prove how macho they really are.

3) They can get VERY boring. Okay I was actually suprised on the Lady Grey we stuck together and just battled our way to Penny and the back to the Clockwork King but I did a Barracuda SF last week where the entire team, except for the Brute, hid until the mission was practically over before he TPed us in to assist. Then in Mission two several of us died anyway and we continued with the thing minus ALL those extra powers we could have had if we'd just done a normal SF.

4) The "Let's start over" mentality can be even worse. We spent twice as long building a team while looking for all the "right" ATs and powersets and with the first mission complete because someone took one wrong step and ended up face planting now we have to all quit, head back to the contact, reform, and do it all over again. I did a MoSFT this way and we redid the first mission 3 time and then failed the challenge on mission 3 or 4 anyway. In the case of my recent LGTF it was even worse the TEAM LEADER who had lectured us all about staying together and NOT rushing was the one that died. We had the Clockwork King practically dead when the ambush appeared and I see in all caps "QUICK GET PENNY TO THE DOOR!" at which point she rushed forward and got zapped. She was the only one defeated during the mission and when we got outside it was everything else's fault but her own and we didn't continue or reform. SHE was just Sooooo upset she decided she needed a dinner break and the 3-4 members from her SG and Coalition all followed suit quiting the team and logging off. So I end up standing in the heart of the RWZ with no badge, no merits and no team.

There are a lot of reasons people do TF/SFs. Some do it for the badges which including Master runs, some do it for the Merits and the potential for Purple drops, others just want XP, INF and whatever else ends up in their trays when they see TF COMPLETE. Frankly while I am a badger I fall into those last two categories more than the first. Masters Runs are nerve racking because no one wants to be the "dork" that blew it. I know for a fact it throws me off and takes me out of my normal game mode. I'm not suicidal when I play and don't like debt anymore than anyone else but when I have that "OH FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE DON'T GET KILLED!" hanging over my head I tend to hold back and spend a lot more time worried about my health bar than the enemy standing in front of my trying to take it down to zero. Normal runs where nothing is a stake and if you die you die are a lot more fun and a LOT more relaxed.

Like I said in the begining I don't HATE them and I applaud all that have succeeded but I really couldn't care less if I do them or not. I won't quit once I join one but so far I have YET to be on a single one that was a success. Give me a normal run with lots of Influence/Infamy and I leave with my salvage, recipes and enhancements full any day.

if they are not advertised, it can be annoying. i did a lrsf for the first time a few weeks ago..and i have no idea at all what happened, basically you were dragged by your teammates to run like heck through groups of hostile enemies, made to feel like you were holding the team back if you had no idea what the hell you were to do or have a slower computer, and basically it was a massively unpleasent experience. do them all you want, but warn people that the tf is going to be a higher pressure situation. I didnt quit because i joined and implicitly committed to it, but had the full terms been disclosed, i would not have joined.

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Oh figured I'd add I didn't post this because I feel bad about being termed the Loser that cost us the Master's run. As I mentioned in the first post in only one of those occasions was I among the first to die and that was on a team that just shrugged it off and kept going. And even then two of us died at the same time because 2 mobs were aggroed at once and we got caught between them.


Yeah Rian I know what you mean. My very FIRST try at LRSF was a master run. There I am with absolutely no clue what's involved and I am being herded around, shoved into corners and told to "wait here while the Brutes kill stuff", and it just generally felt like I was there simply because they needed 8 players to start. I'm playing a 50 level Crab that has every Accoldade with powers enhancing my hit points and end and every slot enhanced with a 50 level IO. I'm a Blaster with the hitpoints of a Scrapper and defenses some Tanks would envy but I am told "Now you just stand here quietly while the BIG BAD Brutes beat things up." I put together a Damage machine and I didnt do it to hide in a corner someplace because we can't let YOU fight .. you might die and RUIN everything! LOL

To be fair I've often done a "Hmm...shall we make this a master attempt...if it goes badly, then no biggie, we've got the muscle to pull us through, this is just on the offchance..." when leading teams, asking the team first (once full) if they all agree then sure we go for it, if not, it's a normal run.

Several times I've wished I'd remembered to do that, both times through the Khan TF I've had nobody die...and we roflpwned everything in there...

i don't get a chance to play TFs often and I'd go nuts if someone insisted on such nonsense. I'd go in and die immediately till they kicked me or got it through their head it's supposed to be a fun game

Durraken I agree with the others. While I have found myself on a few Master's runs that were NOT exactly advertsied as such until after i joined I stayed knowing what to expect. IF you don't want the hassle leave... Don't purposely set out to defeat what everyone else on that team may want because you don't like it.

Smash I agree with you 100% Master run or not the BEST times I have had on High level TFs have been with my friends. Not only is the atmosphere always friendly but we've played together a long time and know each other's style of play. Doing something like a Master's on a team like that, win or lose, seems easier since everyone knows how to cover one another.

Now I have been pretty lucky on the few Master's I have done as PUGS and no one seemed TOO annoyed when it failed... LOL The Lady Grey tonight being the lone exception. Even then the Leader couldn't exactly start yelling and blaming anyone since SHE was the one that died. Of course everything else including the Devs were to blame. I just kept thinking.... "Hey you were the only one that panicked and bolted for the door when the ambush showed up. We all stood our ground, defeated the AV and the ambush while you were busy dying." It does sort of illustrate one of my points though. SHE was so sure that the ambush would result in someone dying and costing us the Master's Run she bolted for the exit and tried to run right PAST the Clockwork King. If it had been a normal run with no "special badge" at stake I am guessing she'd have stayed right there with the rest of us and NO ONE would have died. Her own obsession with preserving the "Master of" cost the team that chance.

I think from now on I simply decline any offer for one and save myself the aggrevation. I'd rather play my normal game and enjoy myself that spend a couple hours worrying if I would be the one to mess things up! To those that succeed .. I salute your acheivement but I'm happy with the plain old badge and the merits that accompnay it. :-D

I tried one Master-of run and it was fairly evident that I didn't like it. It forced a different mindset on how to play: overly cautious on a full team. Which is completely opposite of what makes full teams fun: being able to cut loose on massive spawns. Heck, I felt that I might as well have just door-sat.

I'm still waiting for Master of Master of x challenges where if you die on the TF your character is deleted. That would be a really good badge for the devs to put in.

I like them being there. It forces teams into a playstyle other than the usual "just steamroll everything," and they're completely optional.

That said, if I was ever invited to a TF and informed after joining that it was a Master run, I'd quit. Not only is it rude to invite people and not tell them what you're inviting them for, my expectations of the success of such a team aren't high. If the team forms up and then decides to try for a Master's, sure, I'll go along with it, but if you know you're trying for a Master run, and don't tell people before you invite them, it's a symptom of a bad leader, which leads to a bad team, which leads to near-certain failure.

To the OP, you found out it was a Master's run before it started. Yes, the leader should have advertised it sooner, but you could have left before it even started. If you know you don't like it, why stick around for it? And if you only know it after this experience, just don't join any future ones.

Regular task forces are much more common, and it's always harder for me to find people for a Master run. I guess I'm saying I don't know what the big deal is. It's an option of how to play the game, and you can avoid it... no need to take it further than that.

I really don't get this leader, though. You NEED to advertise that it's a Master run, otherwise you get people not knowing what they're getting into, not being prepared, and being much more likely to fail the challenge. Silly, that.

My philosophy is "If you don't like Masters runs, don't do them." But, yeah, if they don't tell you, that's them being an idiot. I'd quit at the first opportunity, if I didn't want to be there (nicely...."Oh, didn't know this was a Master run. I'd better bow out, sorry.").

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I usually just leave if someone says we'll be doing a 'Masters of' run. Squeamish, yes. But I don't think "if any one of your 8 members gets KO'd the whole team loses" is really a good test or particularly fun. I don't know what a better test would be. Maybe if it was "no temp power rezzes, no resurrection powers if you've been attacked within the past 30 seconds, you lose badge if anyone hospitals and returns into the mission."

Had a very similar experience on LGTF the other week, i was on a lvl 50 troller slotted with mid expense IO sets to get perma hasten and got an invite so i went along.
The tank was continually cursing at people and was annoyed when the hostage did not die on the 1st mission and he faceplanted with the clock king.

The 2 starter members obviously had a plan yet did not bother to tell anyone else, just moaned a lot if thing did not go to their plan,then after the 1 st mission completes they decide to restart for some reason?.
I left leaving their granite tank on go -slow mode

I'm still trying to just run the normal TFs once. Someday I'll try a Master of, but seeing as it's taken me 5 years just to get half of the normal ones done I don't have very high hopes of getting them done before CoH2 comes out (if ever.)

I completely agree about the shift in mindset between a regular TF run and a Master run. It's one thing to go into one of the tougher TFs with no fear of dying. It's all about doing the damn thing and if you die, wake the f*** up and keep it moving. The whole mentality changes with a Master run though. Then it becomes "I can't die, I can't die, I can't die", then you play cautious and playing too cautiously is dangerous in and of itself. Then someone chokes on the pressure and dies and there it is. I know it's not like this for the extremely talented and coordinated players who do Master runs all the time, but for a player like me who is very good but not uber, it is relevant.

To date I only ever tried to Master of runs.

The first was a Master of Statesman Taskforce run with a couple of friends. Oh, it was my first Statesman TF ever, too. To top it all off, I was playing a Blaster. The Master attempt eventually failed in the third mission when someone else face-planted. I was actually RELIEVED to see the Challenge Failed message pop up because it meant I didn't have to play so tensely anymore.

My second Master attempt was an MoITF with a PUG. Funnily enough, that one went smoothly and it's m first and only Master of badge so far. I should also note that when they were recruiting for that MoITF I mentioned I wasn't too hot on the idea of a Master run and they said that if we failed it would be no biggie and we'd just keep on going, so there wasn't too much pressure, either.

Anyway, I still don't really like Master runs myself. I can't really get into a mindset where I'm having fun. I always fear that I'll mess up and ruin it for everyone. It's just too stressful for me to enjoy.

I've never done a Master Of... run. The idea just isn't interesting to me. (Much like multi-billion IO builds for the "perfect untouchable 5000% recharge etc" character isn't.) If they're your thing, go nuts. Just let me know ahead of time on the MO run so I can bow out.

Speed runs... I'll do on occasion. If nothing else to see what's being done on them for a specific TF. But I find them equally dull, generally. Not much talking, banter or screwing around on them - takes a good chunk of the *fun* out of it for me.

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