Last time I did any TF was either the ITF for the costumes. Once was enough and I haven't done any since.
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This quite simply does not line up with my experiences.|
Originally Posted by BlackArachnia
Yes the ambushes waited until all the mobs were finished. BUT!! The span between the last mob dropping and the new ambush getting on us was miniscule. I never had time to drop to knee, and several times, the spawn was right on top of us. Now, I am not sure where you are when the ambushes start, but we barely made it to the second room with the glowies.
As for the zombies, I was actually watching the zombies tear my /regen scrapper apart. The single lieutenant fell quickly that time. But I do understand what you are saying Eiko. I may disagree with your observations, but I understand what you are saying. |
Level 21 Warshade, in human form with none of the resist toggles on, down to 1/2 health after dispatching the Streng and yet able to eliminate the two Zombies that were with it afterward.
I do have to rescind part of my earlier observation, though, but not part that will help your case, even a low-damage AT solo, my level 20 Dark/Dark Defender with three damaging attacks (unless you count Brawl and the origin power, which I didn't use), using no Veteran attacks just defeated Libri Vermis solo at even-level. It wasn't exactly a fast fight, but it is more than doable. This same Defender outlasted the Clockwork ambush waves. During the last two waves, I didn't even use Darkest Night because it was tripping the grief tag on the already run-prone Clockwork, so I was fine with more than half of my mitigation tied behind my back.
Both of these were slotted with nothing better than level 20 DOs, and not even in every slot.
Now I'm not saying that I like the difficulty of Trick or Treat since last year, especially for the low-level soloer or small team. I'm on the record last year as saying that the Bosses and double Lieutenants are way too much, and would love to see them scaled-back until at least level 30, and I stand behind that still. I'm just saying that it isn't some stealth increase to the base damage of all of the mobs involved, but rather the abundant higher-ranked mobs that we see now that is causing the difficulty to be out of balance.
"I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes."
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I thought it was just me being rusty from such a long time off the game, but yes, I have noticed the ToT mobs being more difficult and have made more than a few trips to the hospital. On my scrapper, I was a bit surprised at having to use all the tricks in my secondary to stay alive when I should have been coasting against mobs of that level.|
Originally Posted by BlackArachnia
Anyone else noticing the mobs hitting much harder this year, during the door knocking?
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On my MM's I noticed that those that prior to getting my 3rd tier henchman out, anything with 2 LT's or a boss would be difficult. Lot's of purple/green insps and carefully hanging back, and immediately attacking the bosses helped me stay alive more often. Other helpful items were any powers that would knock them back/down, giving my minions more time to do their thing.
50 Fire/Dev | 50 AR/Dev | 50 Ninjas/FF MM | 50 Bots/Dark | 50 Kin/Rad |
44 EM/Regen | 39 BS/Regen | 38 Kin/Elec | 27 Thugs/Pain
"Rare is the man so noble that he will always give thanks for that which is freely given." -Jock_Tamson
I duoed with a friend today doing some ToTing. We had the following combos, all heroside today:
22 fire/earth dominator
22 kinetic melee/electric brute
Very tough fights, a few visits to the hospital. The only time it got 'easy' was when the group that spawned was all minions (which wasn't often).
34 energy/ninjitsu stalker
34 claws/ninjitsu stalker
Also surprisingly tough. The spawns can see through hide, making a stalker's bread and butter opening move tricky to pull off. The large number of DoT attacks meant is was nearly impossible to placate/AS mid-fight.
50 storm/energy defender
50 fiery aura/super strength tanker
This was the only combo where the fights were easy.
Overall I'm kind of disappointed. I don't mind a challenge but the ToT spawns are basically designed to be tough *and* annoying and it makes the fights tedious and frustrating.
The highlight was getting the Paragon Protector costume and having my character's lizard tail still show up while wearing the costume. It looked hilariously wrong. 
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I swear, one little blonde girl dies, and the whole village is out chasing you with shovels and torches.| Halloween Mobs |
/frankenstein
--NT
They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!
If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville
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::applause:: |
Originally Posted by NuclearToast
I swear, one little blonde girl dies, and the whole village is out chasing you with shovels and torches.
/frankenstein --NT |
I seriously laughed out loud.
Bravo.
OK, we ran through the event with our lvl 50 duo. A spines/sr scrapper and an nrg/cold blaster. It is always nice to wear some comfortable clothes.
The door knocking was still tough at times, but not nearly as tough as it was with lvl 20's and under. The crones and vamp lords were only part of the problem. The other problem was the blasted ghosts. I noticed more clearly that that the mobs run out the door and were very focused on the blaster, even when I opened the door with my scrapper, and she stood back. There were a couple of deaths, (That in itself is an issue, all things considering, but some will disagree. Risk /= reward in this event.) but overall they were on her side. One point I needed to hit elude to deal with a crone that seemed to have my accuracy floored, as I could do nothing to her, and another point, right before a death, the vamp lord was so focused on her, I was wiping him out, and he never turned on me, he focused on the blaster. (No I did not take taunt for my scrapper. I never do.)
We did not try the banners, though one did show up, and we already had the older badges. That left the tip missions.
The lvl 50 tip missions were easier due to the fact that there were no damn ghosts. That was part of the reason it took so long with my other toons. Ghosts seem to rip us apart. Our 50's made it through to the last chamber without triggering the clockwork. We literally steam rolled the mobs. The issues came from the boss, (He was not scaling down as per our difficulty rating, or he was a +1 EB normally.) he needed me to use my focused accuracy to make quick work of him. The clockwork tended to spawn in weird places as well, but also seemed to focus on the blaster, even though she never did the first damage. The Clockwork Lieutenants also did a number on her blaster, oddly enough, but that was controllable.
Over all we are still disappointed in the event this year. Other MMOs have this issue as well, but events should not be the focus of high level toons only. After doing them for so many years, unless you add something new that they are interested in, they won't bother doing the event again. As it is, I doubt my high level toons will be pulled out again for Halloween, and at this rate, the low level toons are just to frustrating to play during the event, though they need to badges.
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I have a level 30 dark/dark defender who has little trouble with the ToT mobs or the elite boss at the end of the tip mission. Darkest night makes even the vamp lords a piece of cake, as long as you don't mind waiting the amount of time it takes to whittle them slowly down. A nice side effect is that since the spirits, witches, and crones never actually hit, I don't have to worry about their to-hit debuffs. I think his only death so far has been when a crone insta-held him coming out of a door (I didn't have a break-free). Also, with shadow fall and super speed I can zoom to the end and kill the elite boss in about 3 minutes solo.|
Originally Posted by Ms. Mesmer
This quite simply does not line up with my experiences.
Level 21 Warshade, in human form with none of the resist toggles on, down to 1/2 health after dispatching the Streng and yet able to eliminate the two Zombies that were with it afterward. I do have to rescind part of my earlier observation, though, but not part that will help your case, even a low-damage AT solo, my level 20 Dark/Dark Defender with three damaging attacks (unless you count Brawl and the origin power, which I didn't use), using no Veteran attacks just defeated Libri Vermis solo at even-level. It wasn't exactly a fast fight, but it is more than doable. This same Defender outlasted the Clockwork ambush waves. During the last two waves, I didn't even use Darkest Night because it was tripping the grief tag on the already run-prone Clockwork, so I was fine with more than half of my mitigation tied behind my back. Both of these were slotted with nothing better than level 20 DOs, and not even in every slot. Now I'm not saying that I like the difficulty of Trick or Treat since last year, especially for the low-level soloer or small team. I'm on the record last year as saying that the Bosses and double Lieutenants are way too much, and would love to see them scaled-back until at least level 30, and I stand behind that still. I'm just saying that it isn't some stealth increase to the base damage of all of the mobs involved, but rather the abundant higher-ranked mobs that we see now that is causing the difficulty to be out of balance. |
Having said that, I have a dominator and a blaster around the same level that faceplant routinely against the same mobs (even though they have similiar IOs, SOs, etc). I think it's more archetype and powerset related than anything. So although easy for some, I understand that they can be very difficult for others.
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Same here. |
Originally Posted by Mirai
Well, I haven't been 1-shot by the Halloween bosses yet, but they can chew up a lot of my characters.
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I've done at least a little solo door-knocking with most of my crew this year, and I've definitely noticed that how easy or difficult it is varies a LOT, depending not only on the toon's AT but also on their level. I didn't have any trouble at all with Pally or Ash (Lvl 50 WP/DB Tank and DB/WP Scrap, respectively-), or with the Kestrel-and-Cardinal pair (my Lvl 50 DB/WP Stalker and her Adept companion-). Shade (Lvl 45 KinMelee/WP Stalker) also handled it pretty well, if only because decently-equipped, fairly well-slotted KM types at that level tend to hit like a sack of bricks when they Crit.
Everyone else has had trouble of one sort or another, no matter what their level... Lan, my lvl 50 Dark Archery defender, for instance, got his butt handed to him on half the doors he opened, and he typically solos relatively well for a support-type. He's not an easy kill. Likewise, my my mid-level DB/WP Stalker... He had a much rougher time of it than Kestrel did.
My poor human-form Peacebringer (only 38 at the time-) probably had it the roughest of all. 'First door he opened was a Vampire Lord and a Wolf leut. You can probably guess how well that fight went. o_0
The second door was a Vampire Lord and a pair of wolves...
Mist gave up trick-or-treating after that.
@Brightfires - @Talisander
That chick what plays the bird-things...
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The Vamp Lords were actually terrible on my Dark/Dark, and even my level 50 Rad/Psi, because they'd use Dominate immediately, holding me before I could even get Darkest Night or Radiation Infection on them, and then tearing me apart. Luckily, both of those characters had the mob badges, and were solely in it for the tips, so I could run to nearby Police Drones or a Wentworth's kill field to just let them die.|
Originally Posted by The_Pancake_King
I have a level 30 dark/dark defender who has little trouble with the ToT mobs or the elite boss at the end of the tip mission. Darkest night makes even the vamp lords a piece of cake, as long as you don't mind waiting the amount of time it takes to whittle them slowly down. A nice side effect is that since the spirits, witches, and crones never actually hit, I don't have to worry about their to-hit debuffs. I think his only death so far has been when a crone insta-held him coming out of a door (I didn't have a break-free). Also, with shadow fall and super speed I can zoom to the end and kill the elite boss in about 3 minutes solo.
Having said that, I have a dominator and a blaster around the same level that faceplant routinely against the same mobs (even though they have similiar IOs, SOs, etc). I think it's more archetype and powerset related than anything. So although easy for some, I understand that they can be very difficult for others. |
That's the other part of the difficulty of this event, as has been mentioned earlier, that these mobs are mainly level 20ish to middle 30s in difficulty, even if you're fighting them on a level 1. A Crone is pretty much a Death Mage that doesn't explode, for instance, and that Chill of the Night is just completely unfair to throw at low-level melee character. It would be nice to get a few of their powers deactivated based on level range to make them more balanced with what you're normally facing in that level range.
"I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes."
I found it amusing how easy of a time my traps/AR defender does ToTing. Of course many of the "droppers" and non target AoE have a big advantage as you can get the drop on the mobs coming out of the doors.
Then you can watch the lagfests created by MMs and plant doms farming doors in Grandville. 
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
<QR>
I've been trick or treating in Praetoria with lowbies without too many problems. The only times I get in trouble is when a Vampire Lord answers the door on a pre-status protection melee character.
So I am popping inspirations as needed and not really having a hard time with it.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
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Stop playing on Freedom and you won't see that problem.
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Originally Posted by newchemicals
Then you can watch the lagfests created by MMs and plant doms farming doors in Grandville.
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The new Tip mission fails to interest me at all. I've done it a few times, but it's not worth the badges for me.
Frankly, I've been spending most of my time designing and playing AE missions. I got some good ideas just after the Halloween event started.