Team Dynamics

One of my toons is about to reach that age where she gets to play with the other boys and girls and I want to make sure she does so correctly. Having played WoW for so long, I have ingrained in my brain the 5man rule: 1 tank, 1 heal, 3 dps - all have their roles and no one acts outside of them.

Something tells me this does not quite hold true for CoX.

What are the optimal team builds? Which team builds should I stay away from?

I second what Dechs says. ANY team is fully functional and very fun. I don't really care who or what comes on to my team when I am building one because, barring some stupidity, it's all going to work out just fine.

And after you've played a bit, try to get on one of those all-X teams he mentioned. My favourite experience in the game so far has been running a Statesman Task Force with an all-Radiation team. This means it was entirely composed of Defenders and Controllers, which in WoW terms would mean we have no damage at all and would probably be impossible. We ripped through the missions and archvillians like a deer through butter.

But...but...there's no balance! What if I pull aggro? What if I need heals! Who is going to tell me that my damage is the sux0rz and I need to L2P n00b!?

OMG!!!!!!: eek:: eek:



But seriously...you can have an all damage team or all tank team or etc.. and still stomp your way across their faces without much of a drawback?

....

Not to be glib, but how is this possible?

Different team make-up will require employing different strategies for success. That is to to say this game is very multi dimmensional as far as methods of success. You could have a team full of DPS and just bash and smash your way to victory, you could have a team of controls/buffs/debuffs and finesse your way to victory, you could have a team of tanks and survive your way to victory, or you can mix and match and still succeed. Most AT's and powersets offer some sort of damage mitigation even for squishies. "healorz" are not necessary for victory. Everyone can survive provided they employ the right strategies.

The important part is to play with people who like to have fun and are willing to work together, which fortunately makes up about 99% of the people I have met in CoX.

Edit: Welcome to the good side of the Force, where there is no dps meter and "n00b" is a bad word.

To be specific, certain ATs do fulfill certain roles. Tankers and some Brutes for instance, are designed to (you guessed it), tank. Blasters and Scrappers pretty much just exist to "DPS," and you have the general support toons.

Thing is, NONE of those roles are "necessary" at any given time. Sure, you can take a Tanker that's asking for a team and he will benefit the team by taking aggro and making sure the weaker chars don't get attacked. But if there isn't a Tanker around, you don't have to take one. With enough buffs or kill speed you can kill things before they become a problem. All the roles are useful, but not required.

For instance, I started a "guns only" superteam recently. This means Dual Pistols, Assault Rifle, Merceneries, and Huntsmen. All pretty much things that are considered underpowered. We had Devices, a couple Traps, and the Huntsmen bonuses, but those support powers don't come until 10-16. So up until that point we compensated with pure damage, just killing everything as fast as we could. After 16, we upped the difficulty to handle more challenging things because we could with all the buffs. And we still don't have a tank, because we don't need one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

I want to call shenanigans on all of this since it all sounds too good to be true, but it seems close to being a god-send after what I've put up with and will cherish it until sunshine blows out my bum.

Welcome to CoX, Alyssa!

Some of my greatest teaming memories in this game come from all one AT or theme teams.

I've played WoW, and the people in the guild over there seem shocked that there's no "Tank, Healer, DPS" rule over here.

Of course, they've never seen a teddy bear in a tweed jacket and bowler hat with a katana tank and spank an AV solo (WoW equivalent would be a raid boss) either.

There are few things in the game that can't be done with any mix of members. About the only thing I can think of are very small teams going against a Giant Monster, or one of the tougher AVs. Even then it's only trouble if you don't have some kind of buff/debuff going on. A quick call out for help and you'll have help on the way.

I love playing my so called weak toons. My defender only pulls out the heals when things get a bit too wild. Most of the time people just don't need them.