Is Pretoria used much on the English servers?
By
aleph_EU,
Posted on: 2010-10-25 24:39 in The European Lounge
Hello there Aleph_EU, there are people still playing in Praetoria at the moment yes and expect a very large increase in new Praetorians once i19 and inherit fitness comes out 
I know of quite a few people who are holding off making new characters [or have planned new characters] due to the fitness change and alternative animations.
I can only speak for union since out of the two servers im 90% union and 10% defiant, but if you do join union to test it out i strongly urge you to join the main channels to make teaming easier.
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I currently have a few low level praetorians if you'ld like to team with them?
- Level 13 pistols/dark miasma corrupt
- Level 8 demon/pain mastermind
- level 7 grav/earth dominator
- Level 4 elec/storm controller
Tomorrow evening i will be playing from about 5pm until 8pm so if you want and decide to play on Union you can contact me ingame on the global @damz
Though may i suggest trying out both the servers to get a feel of which place you feel most comfortable with Hope to catch you ingame soon!
[and ignore the rumours you might hear about a damz! ]
@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!
I can't speak for everyone but I know I am deliberately not playing my low level toons at the moment and have seen other people on the boards say the same. With I19 coming soon(TM) I am waiting for inherent fitness to come around to make things a bit more enjoyable. I know the endless ambushes in Praetoria will be more managable and fun if you had a bit more endurance to deal with them!
I have been mostly playing my level 50s and IOing them out as well as taking part in the Halloween event with my higher level toons (I love ToTing).
I have about 12 toons sat there at the moment waiting to be played. And me and my SG (see below) do occasionally have Praetoria evenings where we play new lower lvl toons in Praetoria and if we have space other people are welcome to join.
Edit - BTW I am 90% Defiant and 10% Union
Member of GGRRR, a SG on Defiant - check out our website - GGRRR
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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I suspect this is very true for a lot of low level play at the moment. However, it's not stopping me. Unless concept dictates that the character is from Primal Earth, all of my low levellers go through Praetoria these days. The content is just so much better than red or blue side these days.
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Originally Posted by Tired Angel
I can't speak for everyone but I know I am deliberately not playing my low level toons at the moment and have seen other people on the boards say the same. With I19 coming soon(TM) I am waiting for inherent fitness to come around to make things a bit more enjoyable. I know the endless ambushes in Praetoria will be more managable and fun if you had a bit more endurance to deal with them!
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@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Praetoria is the only place you can find many low level characters on both English Speaking Servers.
Either Red or Blue side not very friendly because of shinny content in Praetoria for new characters. Speaking for Defiant of last night only blue side had 3 and red side had 2, 1-10 level characters.
Even with i19 coming with big change I still running on blue/praetoria with new characters. Trying to have each of one AT. If you decide to start on Defiant, give me a shout. I will try to help to my best ability.
Knightly
All my lowbies are Praetorians... I was never a fan of low Villain content, and I've done the Hollows and the other Hero content many times. But I'm loving the content in Praetoria and enjoying all the new arcs
Thelonious Monk
I'm another person who was holding out on new characters until the arrival of inherent Fitness, but I've just started playing a lowbie in Praetoria on Defiant, and there were definitely other lowbies running around. And Defiant was at two yellow dots again yesterday evening so there are players on there somewhere :-)
Arc#314490: Zombie Ninja Pirates!
Defiant @Grouchybeast
Death is part of my attack chain.
I did find Praetoria very busy on launch but sure has quitened down a lot now. Saying that i've taken 4 toons to 20 and into Paragon City since launch and with only 1 slot left on Defiant i'm holding that one for emergencies
I'm certainly not holding back for i19 as i've sp many vet respecs lying unused it's no real hassle to go back and change things round.
No way now if i make a new toon would i not make it in Prartoria , spent too long and too many toons in Paragon and the RI starting areas.
Let's also not forget that with i19 comes the chance for Primal characters to visit Praetoria. So chance for new AND old to playthrough.
Tyger (50), Mutation-Controller Mind/FF - oldest Mind/FF on Union
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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I have been playing mostly with my brothers and a friend recently but on both Defiant and Union there tend to be a few people running around.
Feel free to add me as a global and if you see me in Prae be sure to give me a shout if you want to team. @Charnell
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Very much this. More variety, better thought out door locations, just makes the 1-20 pain not only quicker, but much easier to bare with or without a team. Of course once i19 hits and Stamina is inherent, that pain will be even less.|
Originally Posted by Dante
I suspect this is very true for a lot of low level play at the moment. However, it's not stopping me. Unless concept dictates that the character is from Primal Earth, all of my low levellers go through Praetoria these days. The content is just so much better than red or blue side these days.
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I'd agree with the rest here: expect an influx of new characters and teaming opportunities in Praetoria once i19 goes live.
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
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I have levelled my Praetorian to 20 and will leave him there, I really like Praetoria and I don't want to leave lol!
I have also decided to "badge" without leaving Praetoria, have been going for rare ones etc, as an example I added the longbow and arachnos badges without leaving 
In-game and now on Twitter @Tsumiju Zero "The Nightmare of Dra'Gon"
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Proud resident of the Union EU Server.
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The main "problem" with Praetoria is that the content encourages soloing. There's a lot of contacts and missions with very restrictive level ranges and if you team, the increased exp rate means you can outlevel a contact easily and miss out on the very juicy storyline. On top of that, there are missions that explicitly require you to go solo in order to make a moral choice.
There are certainly quite a bunch of people in Praetoria, but the only times I've even desired to team were when I needed to bridge the gap between level 12 and 15 to activate the next bunch of contacts. And this coming from a very team-oriented player.
Most of the people I've seen wanting to team and not caring about contacts and stories were the usual PUG players that are either new to the game or only care about leveling fast.
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Can't agree. If you find yourself outlevelling a contact that you really want to do you can do a number of things, including turning off XP, or even doing the arc again on a different toon, or there's also the Flashback options. |
Originally Posted by MonkeySpirit
The main "problem" with Praetoria is that the content encourages soloing. There's a lot of contacts and missions with very restrictive level ranges and if you team, the increased exp rate means you can outlevel a contact easily and miss out on the very juicy storyline. On top of that, there are missions that explicitly require you to go solo in order to make a moral choice.
There are certainly quite a bunch of people in Praetoria, but the only times I've even desired to team were when I needed to bridge the gap between level 12 and 15 to activate the next bunch of contacts. And this coming from a very team-oriented player. Most of the people I've seen wanting to team and not caring about contacts and stories were the usual PUG players that are either new to the game or only care about leveling fast. |
I've found that the pace of teaming works very well in Praetoria and the Devs learned a lot about providing choices - gone are the days of having to visit Frostfire 27 times on every toon just to get the XP. The strength of Praetoria - as someone who's played in it a lot - I'm still learning the stories there - and I usually find myself discovering it in a small team.
Thelonious Monk
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I can't agree with your disagreement.|
Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
Can't agree. If you find yourself outlevelling a contact that you really want to do you can do a number of things, including turning off XP, or even doing the arc again on a different toon, or there's also the Flashback options.
I've found that the pace of teaming works very well in Praetoria and the Devs learned a lot about providing choices - gone are the days of having to visit Frostfire 27 times on every toon just to get the XP. The strength of Praetoria - as someone who's played in it a lot - I'm still learning the stories there - and I usually find myself discovering it in a small team. |
Any character I've played through Praetoria who has teamed even a small bit has ended up missing the end contacts and arcs due to outleveling them.
I'm also not sure Praetorian missions are available via Flashback, are they?
I'm in agreement with MonkeySpirit. If you want to make sure you get through the complete arcs in Praetoria you need to be solo (or otherwise counter the excess XP you get on teams which makes you outlevel the arcs before you've managed to finish them). The mission arcs in Praetoria are built around soloing the content (as is the morality mission at the end of each zone).
I got around it by making "Content" characters, who mostly soloed and were built towards it, and "Teaming" characters who joined PuGs at random and almost never did any of their own missions (my Fire/Dark Corrupter only ever did the Tutorial and the Portal mission at the end, everything in between was as a member of a PuG).
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I think different approaches to the game are at odds here. Turning off exp is a no-no for me. I find it really demoralizing to beat up enemy after enemy without the knowledge that my sweet sweet ping is waiting for me. I have several dozen characters in my barracks; when I choose to spend time with one of them, it's because I want to see them gaining new powers and becoming stronger. It's also the reason why I'm looking forward to the Incarnate levels, finally something to do with level 50s that can't ping any more.|
Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
Can't agree. If you find yourself outlevelling a contact that you really want to do you can do a number of things, including turning off XP, or even doing the arc again on a different toon, or there's also the Flashback options.
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Still, I'm perfectly aware that it's my choice to gain exp, but without exp my fun is ruined.
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
I've found that the pace of teaming works very well in Praetoria and the Devs learned a lot about providing choices - gone are the days of having to visit Frostfire 27 times on every toon just to get the XP. The strength of Praetoria - as someone who's played in it a lot - I'm still learning the stories there - and I usually find myself discovering it in a small team.
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I'm actually missing a couple of Frostfires in Praetoria, some moderate challenges that are meant to be taken on as a team. Are there any missions like that? Praetoria is a LOT about personal choice and personal responsibility. With all the big nuanced questions being thrown around, it doesn't make sense to give your voice to the team leader.
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Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
I got around it by making "Content" characters, who mostly soloed and were built towards it, and "Teaming" characters who joined PuGs at random and almost never did any of their own missions (my Fire/Dark Corrupter only ever did the Tutorial and the Portal mission at the end, everything in between was as a member of a PuG).
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Whilst I agree with what Carni and Monkey Spirit are saying, I'm not entirely sure those situations are restricted to Praetoria. I think perhaps it's exacerrbated by the fact levelling tends to be faster at the lower levels, so it takes less to out level contacts at level 12, than it would do at level 40 for example.
I gave up a long time ago trying to do any of the storylines unless I was more or less a solo character, because a) team leaders only ever seemed to pick their own arcs, and b) all 80% of PUGs ever seem to do anyway are radio / paper missions. And that's outside of Praetoria.
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat
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Originally Posted by MonkeySpirit
I think different approaches to the game are at odds here. Turning off exp is a no-no for me. I find it really demoralizing to beat up enemy after enemy without the knowledge that my sweet sweet ping is waiting for me. I have several dozen characters in my barracks; when I choose to spend time with one of them, it's because I want to see them gaining new powers and becoming stronger. It's also the reason why I'm looking forward to the Incarnate levels, finally something to do with level 50s that can't ping any more.
Still, I'm perfectly aware that it's my choice to gain exp, but without exp my fun is ruined. |
This I would agree with. I actually hate that but it's an option that's open to you.
I would also suggest there's enough content in the game that we get to 50 much too quickly now - that's a general point not aimed at any zones - but it's a bugbear.
I got a toon from 1-50 in 4 weeks just playing the game normally, no stupidity in the AE, just a couple of hours most nights focussing on one character. That really limits the amount of content we can experience in a "normal levelling pattern" if such a thing exists. Sure we can do the rest of the content via flashback arcs, but it's not the same.
I also have a big problem with "Patrol XP" where we're given a bonus for doing nothing. That's farcical.
Thinking further about this, I've been doing a lot of this in trios - see my trio thread if interested - and playing regularly on that we do well without outlevelling things thus far.
Thelonious Monk
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Where can I find your trio thread? I remember that I used to team with you quite often before my long hiatus a year ago.
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
Thinking further about this, I've been doing a lot of this in trios - see my trio thread if interested - and playing regularly on that we do well without outlevelling things thus far.
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My ideas about Praetoria arcs seems to be confirmed by other players it seems. Teaming is fun on Praetoria but even normally I don't care much of the Blue side arcs, Praetorian arc so good and also while teaming you have to skip your solo missions which are the biggest plus of Praetoria in my opinion.
Best way it seems, as some of you said, rolling solo characters (at least 4 of them to see each faction) to see content. Even if I lead a team I don't have time to read mission briefings while teaming so solo characters for Praetoria is a must.
Also while having a full team during Praetorian missions most of the maps get insane amount of increased mob size. Sometimes you can't even touch land if you jump. :/
When our servers go red is best time to go there. Its active but hard to find team at times. it will be packed after i19 so dont worry about it to much.
Red? I've never seen Defiant or Union go red. At most they've been yellow.
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MA Arcs: Apples of Contention - 3184; Zen & Relaxation - 35392; Tears of Leviathan - 121733 | All posts are rated "R" for "R-r-rrrrr, baby!"|Now, and this is very important... do you want a hug? COH Faces @Blue Rabbit
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Originally Posted by MonkeySpirit
Where can I find your trio thread? I remember that I used to team with you quite often before my long hiatus a year ago.
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Voila! PM me in game if you are interested: @Riff
Thelonious Monk
Hi
I tend to play on Zukunft although I know that this server has the lowest population in the European cluster. But they speak my mother tongue there and I can continue ranting about the shoddy localisation done by NCSoft this way.
What strikes me as odd 'though is that I find maybe 3 or 4 other players in Pretoria in the Search window even during weekends in the afternoon. Luckily I started playing an Electricity/Energy dominator who's quite capable for solo play, so I can progress in the game without any problems.
BUT I DON'T WANT TO. This is a team game after all...
So I wonder how's the population in Pretoria on the English servers. Would it perhaps pay off starting new over there or are there next to zero players there as well?
Thanks for reading,
A
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