Thoughts on the difficulty of STF and LRSF

I really don't get what all the whining is about. Between the forums and in-game, I'm totally flabbergasted.

The STF is not difficulty so long asyou approach it with a balanced team and players that understand how to play their character. You don't *need* a stone tank and you dont *need* an emp, etc. It isn't an elitest challenge. It's the ultimate hero task force challenge. Considering 98% of the game is accessible to everyone, I really don't see the issue. Forming the TF requires that you understand what is about to be thrown at you and finding suitable combinations of different characters that will help you achieve your goal.

Last night we went at the STF with an invul/ tank, kin, dark and storm. We also had 2 blasters, a stalker and a new player logoff after the 1st mission and never come back because he didn't understand what a TF was. Is that the ideal? Not even close. Still finished in under an hour and a half. I would say roughly half the team wasn't IO'd and maybe 3 people had their alphas. It certainly wasn't the prettiest run I've ever been on but the players more or less understood their characters.

For those of you failing for reasons other than people quitting or crashing.....I really don't understand how. The people forming tf's just need a grasp of what they are trying to accomplish. That means there is quite a bit of leeway with what you can bring along, but you might have to turn a few people down.

The system isn't elitest. It's realistic.

Slightly off subject, but thank you to the several that mentioned it ... GW DOES have a melee heal. But alas, I was called the "whack job" last nite for mentioning it. We still had a very long (2:55) run, but we succeeded.

**Damien**

Yep, they're pretty difficult. The main 'wall' being the signature NPCs on either side. I loathe having them at fixed difficulty and I can't wait for the day when I'm level-shifted above them and pounding them into nothing. The difficulty is more often subjective. If you have the right combination; it can be a breeze or it can be a disaster. They've got a higher threshhold than most.


Having said that; I joined up with a team on my main guy, Tyger. It was basically a PuG through one of the badgehunting channels. The leader suggested doing a Master Of run since we seemed to have a good balance (Mind/ff from me, sonic, empath, MM, blaster, corruptor, stalker and Shield tank) and two of them had their rare Alphas slotted, everyone else was uncommon/common. Now I expected us to lose at one of the FP battles, either in the bunker or the last stand under Atlas. We didn't and if we didn't have the badge before; we certainly did after, along with our Notices where applicable.

Which makes 4 out of the five LRSF runs I've done successful but compared to the ITF which I've lost count of how many times I've run; it's one I don't choose to do often, even with the latest carrot dangling over it. I consider it a neccessary evil to not falling behind with the Incarnate system.

Quote:

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.

I actually like that they are including low level TFs in addition to high level ones. IMO incentives related to exemping are a big part of this game and part of what keeps it well balanced. It's part of the variety that helps prevent a small handful of powersets or builds from becoming "the best, all the time."

I prefer a "come as you are" style of team building that creates a large diversity of teams, even if that means sometimes you fail, to a cookie-cutter team building strategy that excludes people and basically makes every TF or SF the same. It's boring to me to use the same team setups and the same strategies over and over.

I'd just like to say that the game already has a color code: Grey, Green, Blue, White, Yellow, Orange, Red, and Purple.

The STF and LRSF are both "purple" Task Forces, most definitely.

Because Ghost Widow is usually the one to crash the party at an STF, I decided to go and see if I could solo her at level 54. Whittled her down to about 75% in 15 minutes (no insps, no temps), got bored and decided I could most probably do it, but I don't want to waste half of my evening trying to prove that. Screenshots are lacking because even though I managed to take a few, my screenshotui had reverted to 0 for some reason so there's no real point in posting those.

Lord Recluse on the other hand? I can't handle that fellow even at +0. The banes he summon quickly overwhelm me. I've never had problems with him on a team that didn't have problems with GW, though.

Conclusion: If your team knows how to build and play their character(s), STF shouldn't be too hard, even when speaking of SO or generic IO only builds. Keep in mind what I did was solo, on an STF you'd have 7 other guys backing you up.


P.S. I might try some other 54 AV tomorrow, Ghost Widow has resistance against my primary damage type which made the going very, very slow.

My first LRSF went very well, (especially after realizing the comical applications of taunt against flying melee characters *think spinning aerial ballet punctuated with attempts to hit me for ridiculous amounts of damage*)

My Statesman TF's, while mostly successful (only 2 fails) I always felt harried and overwhelmed up to the point Recluse died. It's my least favorite TF ever and even though I ran it several times, I still get nauseous thinking about it. I got rares on the two most important toons. The rest are going to wait for a new WTF.

We slammed the STF on Justice last night in 1:21 - no stone Tank, no kin, no empath, no team wipes - just a radical rad and some shockingly excessive damage

As a pure-redside player these days (no L50 Hero, either) I have never seen the STF so can't pass comment on it, however I've been on a few LRSF's (all successful, often with faceplants galore on the last mish).

It's the one bit of content in the game I don't care for at all. I've done two or three as it's the WST but otherwise I wouldn't touch it. When tactics come down to "stack inspirations, use temp powers" or "you must use mass hypnosis" then I reckon something has gone wrong in the design stages.

At least it appears it was semi-fixed in the STF - at least LR doesn't spawn until after the Patrons are defeated.

I feel that the last mission of the LRSF could do with a little redesign - have the Phalanx split into two clear aggro groups so you can take on two groups of four (a la the STF).