Team Dynamics

Oddly enough, I found myself gaining xp faster from the dungeon crawls than from quests due to the zero travel time involved thanks to the LFD. I also prefer team play as death mitigation increases with each extra person (if a single baddie can kill just me alone easily, than it stands to reason if there are more of me, then death is but a shadow). The only time I like solo play is if it something specific to me: class/AT reward, special power, special weapon, etc.. those I like because it centers on me and what I can do. It doesn't look like CoX has those, so I'll be more than happy to grind out the TF's

I've already encountered that ugly xp debt, but I really don't see it being a problem.



I should have known that . Chasing Amy is my favorite movie of all time.

My PC is outdated and needs upgrades something fierce, so playing on a high pop server would kill me. As it stands I have to run the graphics at the lowest setting the slide bar will allow just to ensure my proc doesn't explode lol

Once I can get into the habit of buying pc parts instead of shoes, then I'll look into running a few toons on a higher server.

Yeah, that's why I went back and added the caveat. Since they added LFD, chain-running dungeons can definitely be a good way to level, but it depends on what roles are in demand and if you end up in a half hour queue or not. Tanks almost always get in instantly. I found at lower levels, healers tended to have to wait, but the 60-70 range was healer starved and I got instant queues there.

Debt is almost a complete joke now. If you get any, it's usually gone before you finish the mission, and often simply clearing the next big group will get rid of it. Even if you die a lot and rack some up, your patrol XP (same thing as rested XP, except you don't have to log off anywhere in particular to get it) counteracts it, so the debt goes away while you're logged off.

As long as you check in that server's forums to find out what global channels are usually used that is almost never a significant issue.

Not mention that while Freedom does making finding teams easy, even when you aren't actually looking for one, it also requires a somewhat broad definition for the term "fantastic teaming."

Freedom has a large population and a variety of factors can make it easier than on many other servers to find teams and teammates who are more entertaining or annoying than useful. Some of the best teams i've ever been on have been on Freedom, and so have some of the most jaw-droppingly incompetent, inarticulate, selfish and rude teams. Although those are a rarity, they are quite memorable.

The more i think about the more i realize it's not so much the teams on Freedom that tend to be bad, they're actually mostly good, it's the chatter in the city zones. Assigning the Broadcast and Request channels to a usually hidden tab or just removing them completely can be a good idea on Freedom.

Good!

The optimal team build is N players all of whom are present and pleasant to interact with. You should stay away from builds with several players who are sitting idly at the door or who are annoying to interact with.

Seriously.

Just about every task force has been done with 8-of-X where X is any archetype in the game. Most ordinary content you can steamroll. People say "AFK a second, phone" and the remainder of the group finish clearing the map, because waiting would be boring.

"Heals" is not a role. "Buffs" and "debuffs" are two roles, and a good buffer or debuffer is usually plenty for a team. More generally better. A team with several controllers or dominators or defenders or corruptors or masterminds can usually do stuff.

Here's the thing. Say I have a team of 8 people. We get spawns that are tuned for a team of 8.

Say I instead set my difficulty setting to +0/x8. I get those same spawns, solo.

On my bots/traps mastermind, I often just leave my difficulty set to +0/x8, and clear missions. Might be a bit slow sometimes but it's fun.

Now, any 7 other characters I add to the team will be a bonus, but they won't be necessary, so anything will work. If they all sit at the entrance and speculate about the sexual preferences of other players, I'll clear the map. If they help, we'll clear the map a bit faster.

Given a choice, my preference for team build is:
* At least one buffer (troller, defender, corruptor, mastermind, with a buff set)
* At least one debuffer (troller, defender, corrupto, mastermind, but with a debuff set)
* At least one durable character (scrapper, tanker, brute, or a well-built stalker or a tankermind-build mastermind)
* At least one character with good damage output (mastermind, scrapper, brute, stalker, blaster, dominator)
* Any other four characters who are fun to play with

Note that the "epic" archetypes (soldier of arachnos, widow, peacebringer, warshade) are harder to categorize, and depending on builds may fit plausibly into any of those roles, maybe.

Seriously, though, here is how to get a good team:
1. Announce that you're looking for a team.
2. Invite the first 7 people to express interest.

I came here from Another Game (forum rules, no talking about other games), and I was very used to a rigid group design. Getting my head around just how wide open CoH is about effective groups has been amazing.

Actually, there are quite a few temporary powers (attacks, buffs, self-buffs, travel powers, even a self-heal) that are earnable by running story arcs from normal contacts. Also these story arcs sometimes give out badges. You could run them solo or gather a team to help you or get on a team and then they run your mishes. If badges are involved, you will find quite a few players willing to help out, even better if they can earn that badge too or that temp power.

It can be significant when you're new, and soloing, but...

I'd say the penalty is larger than that in the other game I used to play, but there's a big cultural difference. See, we're not all focused exclusively on Making Level Cap so we can Do The Real Content. Instead, we're playing. And that means that I simply don't care how much XP debt I get. Heck, people pursue XP debt because there's badges for it.

So in CoH, when I was on a small team and something went wrong with spawns so that our three-person team of lowbies was getting spawns with three red bosses in them, you know what we did? We killed a boss, died, came back, killed another boss... But hey, we HAD FUN.

Having to play more and getting some challenges that encourage you to think about how to use your abilities more effectively is not a bad thing. You don't get many people who ragequit the first time something goes wrong.

Yup.

A few things.

First... Regeneration. REGENERATION DOES NOT STOP WHILE IN COMBAT. What this means is that as long as your natural regeneration exceeds incoming damage, you don't die. And in fact, if it merely falls short of incoming damage by an amount less than your total health during the duration of a fight, you still don't die.

Second... Crowd control. Crowd control is a big part of CoH. An opponent which is "mezzed" can't hurt you, and thus, doesn't do damage. Mezzed opponents mean less incoming damage, and that means (see item 1) that you don't die, because you regenerate faster than the incoming damage.

Third... Damage. Defeat is the best mez. A defeated opponent never damages you. Rather than small groups of creatures which are hard to kill, CoH tends towards larger spawns of creatures most of which die easily.

So.

All-tanker team? You are in no danger at all of taking enough damage to die. So if you can kill even one enemy at a time, you will eventually win, guaranteed.

All-blaster team? Someone will have a nuke up every spawn. Most of the enemies will not live long enough to attack more than once.

All-controller team? You can play cards while you wait for your pathetic little plinking damages to kill the enemies, because they're just gonna sit there and let you do it.

Etcetera.

Finally, last but not least:

CoH is by default fairly easy.

Most large teams run with level adjusted to +2 or +3 if they have good synergy, because they get more XP that way. But you can clear everything with level set to +0, and if you don't have enough amazing synergy to steamroll at higher difficulty, no problem, just run at lower difficulty.

It's your own fault for dodging. Healing Arrow is a suppository, you dodged and I missed.

On the lower levels, maybe. By the time you reach the higher levels, you've got enough buffs and debuffs being thrown around that those "pathetic little plinking damages" become a rolling ball of chaos and destruction.

Yeah I've done all controller before. The constant containment on everything means double damage all the time. And most of those are AoE in nature (immob).

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

I'd say the closest this game has to "needing a specific power" is either the "Wild" or Lady Gray TF Hamidon encounter - specifically for the Green Mitos & how being held shuts down their regen "toggle".

At the same time, I've done it on the Lady Gray without a single hold.

You can team from level 1 Only a few of those missions require you be solo.

To be fair :

Original design intent behind the villain ATs was :

Brute: Scrap/melee DPS
Corruptor: Buffage/Range DPS
Dominator: Control/DPS
Mastermind: Tank/Buffage
Stalker: Burst Damage

but between the players and all, has evolved to :


Brute: Tank or Scrap
Corruptor: Still the same
Dominator: Control/ Better on the DPS (current design has Domiantors basically have two primaries vs. the Primary/Secondary focus of other ATs)
Mastermind: Tank still (Summonable bags of HP GO!) and DPS/buffage
Stalker: Burst Damage and Scrap
Seems awkward, but I've seen worse here

Sounds like you would/do like scrappers and brutes

And as for XP debt, around here someone (Memphis_Bill I think) has a line in his sig that the death penalty could only hurt less if npcs stopped and laughed at you before you could rez

Don't tell anyone, but...

...you have superpowers.

Unless they blow up when they die. {mutters obscenities about Warhulks, Jump Bots and henchman insurance rates}

In any case, I'd say this thread covers everything; all that's left is to add my welcome to the City of Heroes.

I would have, except I haven't seen another player doing GR content in the past 3 nights. NOT ONE. I just figured I was doing old content and that everyone had already moved on to other stuff. As a result, I can only manage about 2 levels before the urge for company starts clawing at me.



I'm Rogueside right now, but plan to go Blue. I could never get into the Red. I think it might be the cities - everything so close together and densely packed.

One thing about CoX is that for the majority of the time, most players are inside instanced missions and so you don't see them. If you get yourself onto some of your server's global channels, that's a best way to find teams.

There's not really any 'old content' in CoX, as people often have dozens or hundred of alts. So unless there's some very shiny new toy at a higher level (which is true to a certain extent at the moment with the new level 50 task forces) then there will always be new low level characters starting.

Stupid EU/NA divide, cos you're style of play matches mine, except I often finish with ANYONEGOTAWAKIE? cos I do it on my blaster

My first toon here back during my first visit was a F/F Blaster. I died lots. Constant endurance drain because I always turned my insp into Rages so I could kill things harder. Basic math says the stronger I am is greater than/equal to the speed in which people die. Advanced math would have told me that a steady energy supply is required. I hate math, so /shrugs



Question - I want to do the Clockwork TF. The details on it says it starts in Skyway City. My toon is still doing GR stuff. How do I make this happen?

Thats a different clockwork to the ones you're fighting and you need to finish up in Praetoria and choose Paragon City before you can do it. Or roll another toon as a hero and start in Paragon and level them up. Don't restrict yourself to one toon.

I suffer from altaholicism and have yet to ever get a toon in any MMO to the level cap. This time I'm trying to do better. I have my main Resistence Rogue, an alt Loyalist Rogue and a lvl 2 hero I have parked under the atlas statue that I refuse to log into for 30days to see if I get the badge.

Since I can't do any Tf's yet, I'm gonna grind these last 4 lvls as fast as I can.

There is a day job badge under Atlas?

Yeah, don't you get one for being logged out in a Day Job location for like 20-30 days? I could have sworn I saw that on a list.

Yeah, 21 days, but under the Atlas statue will only give you patroller, which you get anywhere. I'm not sure there is another badge associated with it. Log back in and check if the yellow day jobs icon shows up under your status bar.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Day_Job_Badges